Understanding This Life
by honestgreenpirate
Summary: Ella Marlowe travels with the Doctor. She sees it all. All that's possible, or more likely impossible. Read to find out more of her adventures and life with the Doctor. Sometimes it's hard, sometimes it's sad and sometimes it's truly fantastic.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N****: rather random, I apologise. Not sure how to explain so it's probably best if you just read it! I was also trying ever so hard to be sober when I wrote this right of the top of my head so let me know if any of it doesn't make any sense, ta.**

**This IS linked to my other story A Companionable Diary which is the diary of my original companion Ella Marlowe but you don't need to read that to understand this, it gives a bit more of an understanding of her and the Doctor's relationship and history – and it might be interesting?!? **

Slight Confusion

As the buzzer above the door announced someone entering the messy office Ianto Jones looked up, ready to take the food that had been ordered without his knowledge, give out a years-old tourism brochure or some very precise instructions that would lead whoever it was as far away from the hub as was possible.

He opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by the sparkling laughter held in the hazel eyes looking down on him.

"Hello!" the girl smiled, running a hand through her long brown curls, her natural good humour showing through the secret joke she held in her eyes. "I was wondering if you could tell me where I am."

There was no blush accompanying this strange request and she gave the air of having asked the same question so many times before that she was now impervious to the image it created for her. Ianto was forced to blink before he could answer; there was a mesmerising quality to her eyes, that they had seen more than could ever be imagined, strange in a face so young.

"Cardiff." He managed this one word only after clearing his throat several times. Annoyed by his reaction he tried to tear his gaze from hers but was unable to break the spell before her next words caught him again.

"Really?" she sounded delighted, like something had just been revealed to her. "And what's the year?"

Ianto was definitely thoroughly confused by now but she didn't seem to notice as she waited with politely enquiring eyebrows for his answer.

He managed a bemused and questioning "Er-2007?" before her phone rang. Laughing at his answer but blatantly not at him she answered it, not even bothering with a conventional greeting.

"Guess when we are!"

Even her style of conversation was strange, but also enticing and mysterious, hinting at a whole other way of living a life.

"Yeah, right" she was talking again and with a generous lacing of scorn. "4768 you wish. Its 2007, _and_ Cardiff. No points this round, mate."

To the obvious but silent accompaniment of talking at the other end of the line she rolled her eyes and grinned at Ianto again, as if inviting him to share a joke he was far from understanding.

"But it doesn't – can you just – hang on a minute – stop –" she sighed and raised her eyes to the heavens or the dingy ceiling of the fake and intentionally dirty tourism office Ianto presided over. "Just stop _moaning_! It's not the first time you've been wrong and it won't be the last so let's move on." She raised her voice over the other's protestations. "Look on the bright side, we can go and visit Jack!"

There was happiness and glee clear in her voice now and Ianto began to feel some suspicions, there was only one Jack he'd met in Cardiff that could fuel these sort of reactions. But the strange girl was frowning again.

"Yes! That _is_ a bright side!" she admonished down the phone. Ianto felt a surety that the other half of this conversation was in the possession of a man that had some interest in the buoyant, fascinating girl standing in front of him. "Well, _fine_, but I'm leaving a message."

She hung up as abruptly as she had started the conversation, seemingly secure in the knowledge that she would soon see the man on the other end of the phone.

"Can you do me a favour?"

With the full force of her smile turned upon him Ianto could do nothing more than nod. Without bothering to live up to his usual meticulous standards of noting all messages down on carefully categorized notepaper, Ianto Jones memorised the brief message delivered to him. With a ghost of a wink that she had unknowingly learned from someone else, the girl turned and was soon lost to the night.

When, mere minutes later, Captain Jack Harkness, followed closely by his team, entered Ianto's office he found the Welshman still in some sort of daze. With a few snaps of Jack's fingers in front of his eyes Ianto was brought back to earth and acknowledged his leader.

"I've got a message for you. She said that if I ever met a Captain Jack Harkness I was to tell him that Ella Marlowe says hello and sends her love and that she would have visited but the old man was being really moody about not landing in the right place or time zone."

To everyone else's complete surprise Jack burst out laughing. When he recovered he seemed to suddenly understand Ianto's state when they had entered. He put his hand on the younger man's shoulder, looked into his eyes and smiled.

"She's something, no?"

Ianto could only nod, bereft of speech once again at the mere memory of those few moments he had shared with the time travelling girl. Jack chuckled again and led the way outside, happier than ever before to defend the earth with everything he had, even though at that point he was actually going out drinking with the others.

**A/N****: this wasn't how I meant to start this series of one shots but I suddenly had the idea when I was bored at work and it seemed a good way to begin – also it has Jack and Ianto and Torchwood and mystery and the Doctor being moody in it so its all good! **

**Please review, it makes me feel happy! xxxx**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:**** right, part two, not much linkage to the first chapter except in the charcters of the Doctor and Ella. Based on a quote by J M Barrie who wrote Peter Pan, genius.**

**By the way I don't own Doctor Who.**

"Let no one who loves be called altogether unhappy. Even love unreturned has its rainbow." – _J. M. Barrie_

The door slammed shut and the bolts were shot across. Both of the young women collapsed against a wall, breathing heavily. Being chased for a mile and a half and only _just_ escaping will do that to you.

The taller girl stood up again after a moment and began to look around the room they had ended up in.

There was a bank of computer screens, a couple of keyboards, a mixing desk and a few chairs. As she sat in one of the chairs and tried to take stock of the situation she noticed that a man had appeared on one of the screens.

That screen showed the view of the camera in a studio nearby and was at this point filled with his image – hair slightly ruffled, long coat discarded, blue suit emphasising his height and sonic screwdriver pointing at the camera itself. She searched the mixing desk and, finding the communication button, spoke to him.

"Doctor!"

He jumped about a foot.

"Woah! Where are you?"

"In the gallery, sorry." He nodded and carried on sonicking. "The door's locked so can you let us know when we can come out, you know, not forget me this time?"

He rolled his eyes.

"I _can_ see you, you know!" he couldn't expect to get away with that cheekiness.

"And I _can_ tell you're smiling, you know!" he mimicked her and her smile broadened. "And that happened once, once! Anyone can make a mistake _once_!"

She released the button, allowing him to continue chattering away in the background, and turned to her friend to find Sophy staring her rather disconcertingly in the face.

"What?"

The girl only smirked knowingly in reply and, feeling self-conscious, the other turned around again.

"You _like_ him!"

A look over the shoulder and a raised eyebrow.

"You do! You like him! I know you Ella and you like him – a lot."

Ella Marlowe spun on the chair and confronted on of her oldest friends, who had managed to drag herself from the floor and into a chair.

"What makes you say that?"

Just the right mixture of indifferent curiosity, patronising indulgence and preoccupation with something much more important, all artificial of course.

"You've got that _look_. The same look you had every time you caught sight of Will for a year and a half of college."

This is the problem with having friends who know you so well.

"So? What's going on between you two then?"

Sophy's face was plastered with a cheeky smile and a wicked glint shone in her eyes as her tone suggested that what was going on was everything of the most naughty and licentious in that wooden box.

"Nothing." Ella turned away, back to the screen where only the Doctor's foot was visible.

"What d'you mean? You and him – you're off travelling together all the time – you seem so happy –"

"As friends. He doesn't think of me any other way. Soph, please, can we drop it? I _am_ happy. Just because he doesn't like me like that – we're still together, that's what matters, ok?"

Ella nodded firmly, turned away to consult the screens and found the Doctor had disappeared. She pressed the button and called to him, but got no answer.

Suddenly there was a loud whirring on the other side of the door and they both backed away from it. The final bolt was undone and it swung open to reveal the Doctor standing there, grinning happily.

"Did you miss me?"

Ella laughed and ran into his arms. After a brief hug, they parted, grabbed each other's hands and ran from the room.

Sophy shook her head slowly in wonderment and followed them.

**A/N:**** the "did you miss me?" is blatantly a reference to The Christmas Invasion but it's a great line so I don't feel bad stealing it – if I could get the Lion King reference in I would.**

**Please review, it helps! xx**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:**** Just to say, if anyone has any suggestions for quotes for me to write an oneshot on I'd be really happy to hear them. I've written some already and really enjoyed it but I'm running out of ideas!!**

**I don't own Doctor Who.**

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"Love is being stupid together." – _Paul Valery_

Laughter rang out across the water, echoing again and again as the sound bounced off the glass walls.

Taking up almost the entire room was a large swimming pool filled with bubbles. A man and a girl ducked and dived as they swam, chasing each other in an incredibly childish game of tag. Ella, who was being chased, abruptly stopped and the Doctor instantly poked her arm, yelling "Tag!" at the top of his voice.

She didn't notice though, she had once again dissolved into uncontrollable giggles. In answer to the demand shot at her by her companion she just managed to gasp "I swallowed some bubbles!" before going off into another peal of laughter in which she was quickly joined by the Doctor.

When they finally exhausted they're humour they floated side by side, regarding the stars revealed by the glass ceiling. The Doctor wasn't happy to allow silence to prevail, however.

"Ok, ok. Right – I spy with my little eye – " Ella interrupted him with a groan and he frowned at her. "Oi, this is a fantastic game. Ok – I spy with my little eye something beginning with 'v'."

"Um – oh I _know_! Venus!"

Ella was exultant at her quick thinking, until she caught sight of the Doctor's face which was the picture of incredulity.

"What?"

"We're not even in the right _solar system_ to be able to see Venus."

"Well, how was I supposed to know?"

"Because I told you we were in the Personide System?"

"Well – I mean – well, _fine_. What was it then?"

"You're just going to give up?"

"It's a stupid game."

"You're going to give up? That fast? With only one guess? Do you actually know how to play this game?"

"Yes! I do know how to play and I do give up – happy?"

"It's 'v' for valeturian snapdragon. Look, over there." And he pointed one finger at what looked like a fern-style fake plant to Ella.

"That's not fair! You can't spy something I don't even know exists! And that looks _nothing_ like a snapdragon!"

"Are you trying to blame me for you lack of basic botany knowledge?!"

Exasperated by the argument she resorted to flicking bubbles in his smugly smiling face.

"OI!"

She smiled cheekily at him and tried to escape out of range as he retaliated. It quickly spiralled into a full blown water fight and waves and waves of happy laughter filled the room.

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**A/N:**** I just wanted to say, I hope you don't think the Doctor and Ella are just being thick laughing at pretty much nothing there, in my mind they've just got to the stage that they've laughed so much anything is funny and they're also a bit hyper.**

**Also, the quotes are just starting points, not exact mirrors of the Doctor and Ella's relationship at this point.**

**Please review xxx**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: ****I read this quote and I immediately thought of the Doctor and how all his companions must feel towards him.**

**I don't own Doctor Who.**

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"I love you no matter what you do – but do you have to do so much of it?" – _Jean Illsey Clarke_

As she saw him turn and realised what he was planning to do she made a quick dash for the sealed door. Before she could reach it a hand shot out and clasped her arm, stopping her.

James Morgan, with a worried frown to match hers, looked down into her eyes hoping that the expression in his would convince her to do as he said.

"Ella, no, you can't. You do that and we could all die."

He had met for the first time only a few hours before but had seen enough of her personality to be able to easily predict her reaction. She could flirt one second and be deadly serious the next, laugh at danger, crack some really appalling jokes, matching her companion word for word, fight for the world, universe, whatever, but there were some things she just _couldn't_ do. It wasn't that she wanted to put herself or him or any of the five people with them in danger, she just _couldn't_ leave the Doctor like that. Not until she was sure every other avenue of opportunity had been exhausted.

Sure enough she turned towards him, anger snapping in her eyes.

"But what about the Doctor? He's in danger _now_!"

A faintly amused voice sounded over the intercom.

"Are you worrying about me again?"

The Doctor could be seen, through the floor to ceiling window, holding down the button of the intercom the other side of the room, a small smile playing on his lips and a knowing look in his eye. James pressed the button on their own intercom as Ella's wrath turned on the Doctor.

"What the hell do you think you're doing? There's got to be another way!"

His smile slowly faded to be replaced by a look of resigned sadness.

"There isn't."

She sighed heavily, the anger, which had originally sprung from fear, rapidly leaving her.

"Are you sure?"

He nodded solemnly, keeping eye contact. She breathed deeply before seemingly coming to an inevitable decision.

"Alright. Just be careful, ok? You're my ticket out of here, mate."

A travesty of a joke, an awful attempt to lighten the somewhat leaden mood but he smiled again.

"I will."

She gave him a small wave, trying to smile back, which he returned before turning and disappearing from sight.

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A couple of anxiety wrought and separated hours later, Ella and the Doctor met again in the same room. The intercom system was once more put into play to establish that everything was safe. As soon as the all clear was given, Ella wrenched open the door and sprinted into the Doctor's waiting arms. After checking his face for any sign of a problem, she buried her head deep in his shoulder, feeling the secure comfort of his arms around her as he lifted her feet from the floor.

Again they had come through another life or death situation safely but she couldn't help wondering how much longer their luck would last and sighing slightly at the thought that this was the only life the Doctor could apparently lead.

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**A/N:** **well, I don't know where they are or what the Doctor was doing or who they were fighting or anything like that but I really quite like this chapter and I think James Morgan must be **_**lovely**_

**Please review, theres a love xxxx**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:**** the opening situation is blatantly nicked from The Lazarus Experiment but it's my own thoughts and I've owned up to it so I think it's ok!**

**I don't own Doctor Who.**

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"Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness." – _Betrand Russell_

Out of all the tight spots they'd been in this had to be one of the tightest. Stuck in a gap about two foot square, barely daring to breathe for fear of detection. Being a little shorter, the top of Ella's head just grazed the Doctor's chin and she could clearly smell the attractive aftershave he was wearing (in any other situation she would have burst out with an unthinking "you smell gorgeous" and regret it later) and he her heady and distracting perfume.

As the _thing_ that was chasing them grew nearer, their breathing quickened and, being pressed so close together, they could feel the other's heart (or hearts) rate increasing.

The Doctor tapped Ella lightly on the shoulder.

"Sonic screwdriver."

He spoke so quietly she could barely hear him but she hastened to retrieve his incomparable tool. She reached inside his jacket, her hands fluttering lightly across his chest as she searched his pockets. He snaked his arms around her waist to give her more room. She eventually managed to find it (his pockets _were_ bigger on the inside making it tricky) and place it in his hand.

Some sonicking later the creature had left and they were able to escape the confines of their hiding place. They looked at each other awkwardly, trying to ignore the more-than-sexual tension between them. As a sound announced someone else entering the room, Ella suddenly became very interested in the ceiling and the Doctor in looking at his shoes, tugging on his ear nervously.

"And what _have_ you two been up to?"

With a suggestive smile, the one track minded Captain Jack Harkness looked them both up and down. Ella's hair was messed up and she was blushing and the Doctor's shirt and jacket were pulled out of place by her search for his screwdriver and his hair standing on end from his own frantic fingers as he'd tried to think. To eyes such as Jack's there could be a different reason however. That and the fact the atmosphere between them could have been cut with a knife.

Both pairs of eyes snapped towards him with fright before they tried to shrug it off with nervous laughter.

Returning to the TARDIS at the conclusion of their adventure, they'd managed to recover from their mutual embarrassment but shared the air of being acutely aware of where the other was and what they were doing at any time. They both seemed on edge and tense, though trying not to show it.

Over the next few days, Jack tried to talk them into admitting how they felt or at least making some kind of move. Ella was more willing to talk, after he had broken down her initial resistance by unashamed bribery and blackmail, but refused to even contemplate doing anything. She insisted she would be rejected and it would be the end of their friendship.

The Doctor, manlike, refused to even listen to Jack's well-rehearsed and very persuasive speech. He cut him off quickly and without stating his feelings in so many words made it very clear he would not risk their current happiness, threatening to throw Jack out into the vortex if he tried again.

They carried on in this way, even after Jack left them to return to his team in Cardiff, happy but with an underlying current of awareness, tension and worry. Each almost wanting something to happen but being unable to instigate it and simultaneously feeling terrified the other would some how be able to see their thoughts in their eyes, or their imaginings…..

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**A/N:**** oh I always hate these situations, never knowing whether to do something or not, ugh.**

**Anyway I hope you liked it, I'm not as happy with this as the other chapters please review and let me know what you reckon xxxx**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N:**** I don't own Doctor Who**

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"To be happy with a woman you must love her a lot and not try to understand her at all" – _Helen Rowland_

As the music began disappointment was etched clearly on the young woman's face. She performed her steps with trancelike abstraction and her dance partner did not have the courage or ability to claim her attention or inspire her happiness.

However, with a turn of the dance, another, much more handsome and dashing man appeared next to her and her face became instantly wreathed in smiles and her eyes glowed with joy as they met his.

Sitting forward on the sofa, watching these events unfold on the screen in front of her, Ella Marlowe gave a little "oh" of happiness and clasped one hand to her mouth and grabbed the Doctor's knee with the other as tears began to stream down her cheeks.

The Doctor looked between her and the screen in complete confusion. It seemed a nice enough film, not what he would normally choose himself and hideously inaccurate historically, but Ella had wanted to watch it so he had agreed knowing how happy it would make her, or so he'd thought. Anyway, a nice enough film, but not really anything to cry about, especially just because they were dancing.

He turned to Ella again, about to demand an explanation, and caught the sparkle of tears in her eyes. He decided that it didn't really matter that he didn't understand why she was crying; only that she was. He took her hand from his knee to hold in one of his, moved his other arm from the back of the sofa and around her shoulders and pulled her towards him. She sank gratefully into his warmth, snuggling closer to him, still silently sobbing and without moving fascinated gaze from the screen.

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**A/N:**** the film they are watching is Becoming Jane, which I really don't own. The bit when they're dancing is the bit when I started crying in the cinema, feeling a bit stupid but not being able to stop myself, and I unfortunately didn't have a Doctor to comfort me (just three similarly afflicted friends) so I thought Ella should. And it is exactly the sort of thing that lads don't understand about girls.**

**Also the quotes **_**are**_** only starting points, inspiration and don't always link exactly to what is happening or the Doctor and Ella's relationship.**

**And now I'll shut up, please review xxxx**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N:**** Sorry it's been a while since I updated I've been busy and tired.**

**I love this quote, and I love Blackpool ****(David Tennant singing! If you haven't watched it go watch.) – which I don't own, and I don't own Doctor Who.**

**Enjoy.**

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"Could I – hold your hand?" – _D.I. Carlisle/David Tennant, Blackpool_

Walking through a bustling market place, full of aliens, on a distant planet, with absolutely no invading hoards or psychopathic maniacs shouldn't have been too hard, but the Doctor seemed to suffer some confusion.

To Ella Marlowe's relatively uninitiated eyes the place was a wonder. She had not yet been travelling with the Doctor long and the aliens she had so far encountered were ones they had been fighting. Now, once she had recovered from the shock of seeing so many different species in the same place, she was at leisure to study them more carefully and was amazed by what she saw. Even when the endlessly moving crowds began to pall slightly she could switch her attention to the things that were being bought and sold.

Though Ella marvelled at what she could see, the Doctor, who had visited many markets and many planets, was more interested in watching her reactions flit across her face. He was distracted once or twice by particularly interesting or rare trinkets but her fascination was more enjoyable to look at.

He was keen to show her more and more, desperate for her to appreciate and share his love for the things and people. He would unthinkingly grasp her hand to drag her towards another stall and just as abruptly separate their fingers as if suddenly realising what it was he was doing, trying to cover it up by babbling about what he had spotted or anything and everything that occurred to him.

It was too much to expect that Ella would not notice his actions and confusion. The first couple of times she tried to attribute it to a sudden movement of the crowd or the Doctor's impatience. On the fifth or sixth occasion she was forced to admit that there was something deeper behind it. They had held hands before but it had been while they were running for their lives or jumping off buildings. This was a much more casual, intimate situation to be holding hands in and it appeared the Doctor was uneasy about doing it under these conditions and confused by his own basic wish to do so.

It was months and months later that Ella finally understood the reasons behind these circuitous and torturous internal battles the Doctor suffered. She had learned how alone he was, the loneliness that threatened to engulf him, how afraid he was to let anyone grow close to him, the deep guilt he carried for all those he'd lost.

She had heard how he had left Sarah Jane Smith for her own safety and found out how it still tortured him that circumstances outside his control had forced that action.

She had been told how Rose Tyler had been taken from him and seen his grief. How hard it was for him that they still had unfinished business and unfinished words. How hard he tried to lead the fantastic life he'd once made her promise to strive for and was sure she was striving for even now.

She was friends with Captain Jack Harkness and had learned of the times he and the Doctor had said goodbye, had been there for some of them. She'd seen how much it hurt the Doctor every time Jack chose Torchwood and his team over travelling with him.

She had met and liked Martha Jones, Doctor Martha Jones, and had talked about the year that never was and seen the pride shining in the Doctor's eyes for that and so many other things Martha had achieved. She'd also seen the sadness and slight jealousy that the Doctor felt as they waved goodbye to happy Martha leaving with Doctor Thomas Milligan into a life the Doctor could never lead.

Ella saw all this and much more and she understood. She tried everyday to show the Doctor she was there, to try and make him feel less alone, less afraid, less guilty.

Now he was quite happy to hold her hand in any situation. Whether they were running for their lives or wandering down a street, visiting her parents or standing on top of the Eiffel Tower, where Ella was attacked by a sudden sense of vertigo.

Holding hands was important to him, a sort of commitment, and being able to do it without doubt or second thought made him more complete and more content.

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**A/N:**** I think I might have mixed up some tenses in this so I'm terribly sorry, let me know if you spot any and I'll try and fix them.**

**Hope you liked it, I'm quite fond of the ending myself.**

**Please review xxxxx**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N:**** this is just such complete and utter randomness. It's from another story I started writing but really just doesn't make sense and won't work so I decided to just nick this bit cause I like it.**

**Before you start reading you're just going to have to accept the Ninth Doctor, the Tenth Doctor, Rose, Mickey, Jack and Ella are all in the TARDIS – there will be no explanation.**

**I don't own anything.**

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A Jumble

The TARDIS suddenly jerked – making Ella fall into Jack, who was sitting on the sofa's armrest, and Jack fall on the floor. The Tenth Doctor stood up so fast Ella heard his joints crack. He paused only to shoot a quick "You both ok?" to his sprawling companions before sprinting from the room to the sound of a bemused "Fine, fine." from their vague direction. After struggling to their feet and regaining their dignity, Jack and Ella ran after him.

There was still some turbulence, though not as bad as the initial hit, and they had to claw their way along the walls to remain upright. Entering the control room, Jack half shouted,

"We must have hit something big!"

"But we're not moving!"

Ella knew for a fact that they were parked, or they had been a minute ago anyway.

"Exactly! So why are we?"

The Tenth Doctor was frantically trying to reach five different buttons and levers at once, whilst still holding on to the console and work out what was going on. Jack and Ella raced to help and were soon joined by the Ninth Doctor, who stared incredulously at the screen.

"How did that happen? We're being pulled by something!"

"What?!"

The two Doctors stood side by side, disbelief wide in their eyes, so different but so similar. In one moment they both breathed,

"Impossible!"

As quickly as it had started the movement of the TARDIS came to a sudden juddering halt – making everyone fall to the ground. Rose had just been about to enter the room, a question on her lips, and managed to fall down a couple of steps and crack heads with Jack as the landed together by the console accompanied by two very loud "OW!"s of pain. There was also a loud thump from the corridor indicating Mickey had also been knocked off his feet, he appeared in the control room not soon after and was seen to have suffered no serious injury however. Both Doctors were on their feet in seconds, seemingly unaffected by the bumpy ride.

The TARDIS had lost it's usual glow, seeming to have almost shut down. After ascertaining everyone was uninjured the two Doctors began to assess the damage to their ship. Amongst much bickering they agreed that no one under any circumstances should leave the TARDIS until they had found out what happened. Whatever they'd already discovered was clearly bad news; it was completely out of character, especially for the over-excitable Tenth Doctor, for them not to walk into possible danger's open arms.

After about an hour Rose, Jack, Ella and Mickey had given up trying to help after being shouted at several times and were sitting chatting. The two Doctors couldn't be considered as actually contributing to the conversation and the others had lapsed into telling stories of their time traveling with the Doctor.

" – and then the Doctor was just like 'Go to your room! I'm very angry!' "

The four of them cracked up even though Mickey had heard the story before and Rose and Jack had been there.

"Which Doctor was that?"

Sometimes Ella found it easy to tell and sometimes it was just confusing, particularly as she barely knew the Ninth Doctor.

"That was the Ninth," Rose clarified.

"We've got to work out something to call them – it's too confusing." Jack voiced Ella's almost exact thoughts.

"Number Nine and Number Ten?" was the rather unimaginative contribution from Mickey.

Whatever doubts they'd had of the Doctors listening to the conversation were swiftly erased as they both protested against their labels.

"I'm not a house in Downing Street!" the Tenth Doctor seemed outraged by the idea. "I blew up that place, I'm not going to be called after it!"

"Oh, well done, Rickey the Idiot. State the obvious as usual." the Ninth Doctor had started on one of his favorite hobbies. "And Number Nine? As in Love Potion Number Nine? No chance!" There was disgust clear in his voice.

Rose didn't let these infuriated reactions faze her, she acted as if they'd never happened.

"We could call the Ninth Doctor Mr. Spock – that's how I first introduced him to Jack."

Ella's new found respect for Rose increased ten fold – that was some seriously good retaliation for something the Doctor had blatantly done wrong.

"And we could call the Tenth Doctor Pickle." Several questioning looks and eyebrows were thrown in Ella's direction, the Tenth Doctor looked like he'd been betrayed by his best friend. "No reason, it's just a good word."

"Mr. Spock and Pickle it is then," Jack grinned. "This is gonna be fun."

The Doctors were utterly speechless and just stared at them, completely stunned. When he finally found his voice, the Ninth turned to the Tenth – or should I say, Mr. Spock turned to Pickle – and said,

"Is it me or did our companions used to show a bit more respect?"

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**A/N:**** I hope there was something in there to entertain you. This was a real one off, more one offish than any other chapter. **

**Let me know xxxxx**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N:**** just a short little thing…….**

"Love does not consist in gazing at one another, but looking together in the same direction." – _Antoine de Saint-Excepéry_

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They stood together, hands loosely linked and a slight breeze ruffling their hair.

Spread before them were rippling waves of blue water reaching to the city that floated.

Bel Venezia

A sigh of wonderment escaped her lips and she spoke with her eyes still trained on the far off place, as if afraid it would disappear.

"Thank you, I've always wanted to come here."

He lightly squeezed her hand and they gazed on together, their expressions matched, for a considerable amount of time.

Hours later, with a last longing glance at the view, she suffered herself to be led to where the boat was moored and be taken to explore Venice at first hand.

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**A/N:**** I used one of those translation things on the internet for "beautiful Venice" I wanted it to be Bella Venezia but the thing said it was Bel Venezia instead – I do apologise if I got that wrong.**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N:**** this is based on a quote by Marilyn Monroe. I don't own her or Doctor Who, surprisingly.**

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"A career is a wonderful thing, but you can't snuggle up to it on a cold night." – _Marilyn Monroe_

There was a heavy frown between Ella's eyebrows as she massaged her forehead again. The niggling that signalled the beginning of a headache had been swallowed by a full blown migraine.

She blinked a couple of times and tried to focus on the computer screen in front of her, her eyes wide with exhaustion behind thick rimmed glasses.

"Though there is evidence to suggest that Hamlet was an indecisive coward it should also be considered – that – he – "

Muttering the last sentence she had written aloud she searched for the next words. Her eyes were stinging and their lids fluttered down, her lashes resting on the deep shadows beneath them.

Her eyes snapped open at the heavenly aroma of fresh, hot coffee. There was a steaming mug before her. With one hand she reached for it and simultaneously tilted her head back to give a smile of thanks to the man standing behind her chair.

His hands rested on her shoulders and lightly massaged the knot of tension between them as he spoke.

"You won't stay up too late doing this, will you? You'll just be grumpy and sleepy if you do and Hamlet will still be here tomorrow, not forever mind - everyone gets annoyed with the lack of conclusive decisions that can be made about it - but for a fair few years."

A smile flitted across her face at his irrelevant comments and she promised she wouldn't be much longer. His hands left her shoulders and he dropped a small kiss into her hair before turning to leave the room.

Her eyes followed him to the door and, with one last glance at her unfinished essay displayed on the screen, she abandoned her work but not her coffee and followed him. Being curled up for sleep with a Time Lord, particularly the one in question, was far better than struggling with Hamlet and even better than a hot water bottle in the chill air of a night time TARDIS.

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**A/N:**** needless to say I wrote this when I was cold and was supposed to be doing my Hamlet coursework – don't get me wrong, I actually quite like Shakespeare but the Doctor IS better! **

**Please review there's a darling**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N:**** Hope you like this chapter.**

**I don't own Doctor Who**

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"Love affairs start when you sink into his arms" – _Lucille Ball_

Rising from her chair Ella felt a little more unsteady than she should do. They'd been having dinner with some friends and the evening had just arrived at a natural conclusion. Saying goodbye at their door the cool night air hit her face and she began to feel even more light headed. She managed to reach the gate unaided but paused there, supporting herself on the post. Ostentatiously this was to wait for the Doctor but really she had no recollection what so ever of where they had left the TARDIS.

Catching her up he took her hand and led her round to the right without noticing anything was wrong, even though she was leaning quite heavily on his arm. By the time they reached the end of the street however Ella's knees had stopped working properly and she was finding it rather hard to walk.

She was drunkenly determined to carry on though and when the Doctor stopped to find out what was going on she dropped his hand and carried on a few paces without him. She didn't get very far before she swayed and would have fallen to the ground if it wasn't for his quick reactions.

Finding herself safely supported by his arms she made use of his shoulder as a pillow. After a moment she glanced up at the half amused, half exasperated expression on his face. She smiled sleepily and murmured

"You smell simply lovely."

His expression changed entirely to amusement touched with tenderness and a deeper, darker expression in his eyes. Her befuddled mind was too confused to try to work out what it meant and she was happy to avoid the situation by burying her head in his shoulder again.

He laughed softly and she could feel it in his chest.

"Do you want to walk, Ella?"

A definite shake of the head answered him. She was warm and safe and she felt content to stay there forever.

The Doctor laughed again, moved his position and, before she even realised what was happening, had her in his arms. The sudden movement made her head swim sickeningly and she briefly closed her eyes to avoid the sensation. A feather light kiss on her forehead made them fly open again and she saw the Doctor smile at her before he looked ahead to contemplate their journey. Smiling slightly herself she tucked her cold hands into his jacket to increase her comfort still further. Feeling her do this he smiled and, cradling her closer to his chest, started walking towards the TARDIS which, thankfully, was not far away. Ella had sunk into a deep and dreamless oblivion from which very few memories would survive. All she'd receive from her evening's work would be a thumping headache instead of a change in her and the Doctor's relationship, something she craved rather more.

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**A/N:**** oh the updates today, hope you like please review xxx**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: ****this is dedicated to **USDA-Certified Organic **who suggested the quote and is a fantastic reviewer. I hope you like it and think I've done justice to your quote!**

**If anyone else has any quote ideas or just any ideas full stop let me know, I'll try and write about them.**

**I don't own Doctor Who.**

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"Who knows how tea will mix with salt water?" – _John Rowe, Boston Tea Party, 1773_

The middle aged woman was clutching her sides, trying to fight down her sobs and justify her actions to the Doctor.

"So many people have died. People I knew, people I loved. I had to do something, Doctor!"

Pity was written clearly on Ella's face as she began to realise what this woman had been through and how much she'd lost before giving in. She went to the woman's side and put an arm round her shoulders as she collapsed into a chair.

The uncompromising lines of the Doctor's face relaxed as he recognised the torment the woman was suffering. His cold anger and disgust no longer had a place in his feelings towards this woman. She had made a decision that she thought would alleviate the suffering of herself and those around her, a decision the Doctor could sympathise with though not the one he would make himself. Not the one he _did_ make himself. He had sacrificed Gallifrey and all his people to bring about the end of the Time War and was now plagued by a constant survivor's guilt. But this poor woman was attacked by a different sort of guilt, one that sprang from her causing her people to loose the battle and which had no real justification once the killing began again. At least the Doctor could comfort himself with the thought that his decision had achieved something good. The woman knew her choice was barely defendable in front of this man with the world, the universe and all its grief and pain in his eyes, but she tried to explain further.

"They killed my son, Doctor, my poor little boy. If you've ever lost a child you will know how obliteratingly awful that is and if you haven't, you could never begin to comprehend it." It was clear that despite what she'd seen in his eyes she didn't believe he had lost a child, the girl with him was not old enough or scarred enough and the pair were wholly entwined by invisible bonds. "Parents should never have to outlive their children, Doctor. I've buried my parents, my husband and my son. I couldn't let it go on."

She broke off, her grief becoming too much for her to carry on explaining. Ella held her, trying to lend comfort with tears flowing down her own face.

The Doctor glanced around; taking a deep breath, before sitting on the woman's other side. With both his hands jammed deep in his pockets and his gaze on a far off spot, both clear signs he was trying to block out his emotions, he began to speak in a soft, distant voice.

"I know what it's like to become a parent and feel the need to shield your child from every danger. I know how hard it is to allow them the freedom to grow up. I know the pride you feel when your children become amazing people. I know how wonderful it is to be a grandparent and feel able to indulge your grandchildren. And I know how it feels to loose every single member of your family, every child and every grandchild. And I know how it feels to all but sign the death warrant for your entire race because that's what has to be done. I _know_."

Both the woman and Ella were staring in horrified amazement at the Doctor, as if wondering how he could still be alive, still be functioning after suffering so much. Long silent moments passed before the woman spoke.

"I don't know what to say to you."

The Doctor finally turned and looked her in the eye, his own grief stricken and sparkling with unshed tears. When he spoke his voice was thick with suppressed emotion.

"Just tell me you're sorry."

"I am. I'm so sorry."

The Doctor nodded once and stood. Peace had been restored and the planet would slowly begin to rebuild itself and the people would slowly begin to recover. The Doctor no longer needed to be there and he suddenly didn't want to be anywhere near this place.

He reached out his hand and was relieved to feel Ella instantly take it, alleviating some of his oppressive loneliness.

In the TARDIS the Doctor flicked controls and manipulated his ship into the vortex, outrunning his memories. Ella sat watching him, sadness and apprehension coursing through her.

When a smooth flight had been instigated the Doctor stared, unseeing, at the controls before coming to a decision. If he persevered he might have been able to ramble his way out of the situation and turn Ella's thoughts, but it would be an insult to her, she had been by his side and fought for justice with him and she deserved some sort of acknowledgement that what he'd spoken was the truth. He'd learnt that the hard way with previous companions.

He walked towards her until he was so close she was forced to look at him properly. He took her arm and pulled her to her feet, allowing his eyes to show his true feelings for once. Looking into them Ella felt as if a brick wall had suddenly sprung up in front of her. His grief was so terrible and so deep she felt she was drowning in it. His next words seemed to drag her from the depths of his despair,

"Shall we go and get a cup of tea?"

She could only nod, and be led to the kitchen, and sit at the table as he pottered around. The basic act of his boiling a kettle and selecting their mugs and allowing their tea bags long enough in the water and using just the right amount of sugar for her and just the right amount of milk for him calmed her and highlighted how he'd moved on, how he'd worked through his grief and no longer allowed it to consume him.

So, when they sat opposite each other, two steaming mugs before them, she was able to conjure up a half smile which he returned with practised ease before taking his first restorative sip. Tea and tears went well together.

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**A/N:**** that's actually quite sad. I'd forgotten until I typed it up.**

**Please review xxx**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N:**** this quote is from somewhere but I can't for the life of me remember where – so if anyone knows please tell me!**

**I don't own anything.**

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"There are as many types of love as there are stars in the sky."

The Doctor had had enough. Really he had. If he ever had the misfortune to have another companion, and at this moment he really thought it would be a misfortune, especially if it was another woman, he was never ever having two women travelling in his TARDIS at the same time again, Donna and Martha together had been too much. Anyway, if he ever had the misfortune of having another companion he was not, absolutely, completely and utterly _not_ going to do anything to their phone that had the merest smidgeon of a suggestion to do with jiggery pokery. He didn't care if he'd given it the status of some sort of frequent flyers privilege; it was no longer going to happen. Now he had only to find some sort of loophole which would let him stop Ella's phone from having magic all over signal without infringing on his genius status and he was sorted.

Because enough was enough. She was always talking on the bloody thing and he was sick of it. Well, he was sick of the half of the conversation he heard. The other day was a perfect example, perfect. Her phone had rung as she was sitting waiting to hand tools to him and she'd answered quickly, almost as if she'd been bored or something.

"Hello?"

And then with more warmth in her voice.

"Oh, hello! How are you? – Oh _good_. I'm fine, yeh, really good. How was Cowes? – Really? Fantastic! Well done! – Yeah, you'll have to send me some. – Mm hmm, yeah, so did I."

There was a rather prolonged burst of laughter. The Doctor rolled his eyes.

"God, I know. It's ridiculous."

It wasn't until this point that she'd noticed he was still trying to get the wrench he'd been asking for for the past _five minutes_.

"Listen, I have to go."

Big smile.

"Yeah, will do. Ok, say his to everyone for me. Lots of love, bye. Yeah, bye."

Even when she'd finished the conversation and hung up the phone she couldn't stop smiling. He had finally caved to curiosity and asked, while trying to sound as disinterested as possible and concentrating on the wrench,

"Who was that?"

"Patrick."

Had been her _happy_ answer and she'd wandered _happily_ off, _humming_ and completely forgetting she was supposed to be helping him.

And that hadn't been the only time, oh no, not by a long shot. A couple of weeks before it had been some random bloke called 'Liam' for god's sake. And it'd been all giggles, and "I'll call you soon" and "_Oh_, I love you too!". What had been so funny anyway? He was funny.

And what was possible worse, the men she talked about to her girly mates. Sometimes it was "But he's just so _manly_!" and "He could _so_ look after you, you know? (And he _didn't_ look after her?) I just _love_ him!" and at other times it was "He's _so_ funny and just so _cute_ and _utterly_ adorable!". It was enough to drive anyone insane but the injustice of it all. He'd been travelling for nine hundred years and he had never seen anyone who could rival this regenerations puppy dog look for cuteness and adorability.

Possibly the worst conversation he'd heard half of was the time that they'd been locked in a real live dungeon last week and she'd been more interested in chatting on her damn phone than his really rather interesting story about the origins of dungeons which he had thought would be a good story to tell before getting them out. It had only been a quick conversation because he'd quickly discovered that he really couldn't _stand_ listening and had sonicked them out.

"Alright treacle! How are you darling? – Mm hmm. Oh good stuff. – Not really? Great!"

Another infectious, delighted laugh – he rather liked making her laugh like that himself. He started sonicking.

"How was Hawaii? – A cliff? Are you insane? – Ha! Yeah I remember. That was a really fun holiday, we should go again. – God, yeah, so lost. It was your fault!"

Another laugh.

"Well, next time I get the map."

The dungeon door swung open and he finally gained her attention.

"Oh! We're free! Yay! I got to go, love you, bye!"

She'd hung up and they'd been on their merry way, but later he'd asked who it was, well more sort of demanded really. She'd said 'James' sounding perfectly innocent, but God.

Anyway, all these calls and more had built up and caused his patience to wear exceedingly thin. Ella had gone to change her shoes and take off her jacket and her left her phone in the control room. He was being offered the perfect opportunity and made a split second, instinctive decision.

With one hand he picked up her phone and with the other whipped out his sonic screwdriver. He was pointing the working end of this device at the phone and was about to get to work when he heard Ella's voice behind him.

"Doctor? What are you doing?"

He spun around and saw she was looking at him in confusion.

"I – I – I was just going to – er – sort your phone out a bit."

"You already have."

"Well, yeah, I just wanted to – um – give you a bit of an upgrade." One glance at her sceptically raised eyebrows and all too knowing smile and he knew he'd have to tell some part of the truth at least. "I just wanted to – y'know – shorten the range a bit. You spend too much time on that thing – " He'd put it back in her demanding hand and was free to use a judicious amount of finger pointing. " – and you keep missing fantastic bits. Like, like – like the other day you were sitting there nattering away when you could have seen a rampaging herd of green wildebeest stampeding through a rainbow just outside the door!"

"I really don't believe you."

"Well, ok. I say outside the door – we would have had to travel into another solar system and a few thousand years into the future – but the point still stands! You could be missing things and you talk too much on that!" more finger pointing. "And who do you talk to anyway? You ask ridiculous questions about cows – what've cows got to do with anything eh?"

"Cowes, as in the place. On the Isle of White. The yacht racing during Cowes week! And for your information I was talking to Patrick." One look at his unconvinced face caused her to continue. "My uncle Patrick. My mother's youngest brother!"

He looked a bit sheepish and even a little relieved for a few moments before he recalled other conversations.

"Yeah, what about that bloke, Liam or whatever his name was? You couldn't stop giggling the whole time!"

"Liam? Liam's Liam. He's one of my best friends, has been for the past _four years_."

There was definitely relief on his face now and Ella's annoyance began to fade as she started to see what this conversation was about.

"Who do you describe as 'just so _manly_' and able to 'look after you'?"

She sent him a scathing look in response to the voice he was putting on as he made quotes, which sounded nothing like how she spoke, before she explained.

"I was talking about Johnny Depp actually."

"Manly? Really?"

He seemed genuinely curious but she hit him for casting aspersions on one of her men.

"Yes! Really!"

"Huh, weird. Ok then, who's '_so_ funny' and 'so _cute_' and '_utterly_ adorable'?"

"Oh, Simon Pegg. Yeah, he's fantastic. I really quite want to adopt him."

"Adopt him? Why?"

"His head is just so cute and round!"

Ella really was the most unusual girl.

"Riiiight. What about whoever was in Hawaii?"

"I told you, that was James! My baby brother James." She paused, seeming to expect a reaction but receiving none. "You've _met_ him!"

He finally realised who she was talking about, and felt a bit foolish really. She noticed and couldn't stop herself from saying, in a teasing tone,

"Doctor?" he was moving away from her and around the console. "Where you by any chance a little, tiny, teensy bit jealous?"

She even helped him further understand what she meant by holding her thumb and fore finger half an inch apart. He gave her an impatient glance, but didn't speak. She followed him further round the console till they stood side by side. She trailed one finger up his arm and looked up at him through her lashes in the most provocative way she knew. He cleared his throat loudly. She shifted position so she was a little closer.

"Because it's ok if you are jealous. I quite like it, means you still want me around."

She leaned in even closer, he steadfastly ignored her, and she whispered, with all possible suggestion injected into the simple words,

"It's a _good_ thing."

With one last look she moved away, making sure she had her phone with her. The Doctor was just regaining mastery over himself, by dint of ignoring the scent she'd left behind, when she paused at the door.

"And Doctor?"

He turned in spite of himself and saw she was wearing a particularly wicked grin.

"Just be glad you didn't hear any of my conversations with Jack – they would've made you _really_ jealous."

With a cheeky wink she turned, leaving him cursing himself and the flirty Captain. He vowed he would never yield to a jealous impulse again, it only got him into trouble.

Perhaps a visit to Cardiff was in order though, Jack appeared to need a warning……

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**A/N:**** please review xxx**


	14. Chapter 14

"Who's going to hold his hand now?" – _Rose Tyler, 'Fear Her', Doctor Who_

He'd explained to Rose – days, weeks, months, years, decades, minutes, seconds ago – how everyone needed a hand to hold. That it was the most important thing to have, the most important thing that made travelling the universe possible. How important it was to feel that emotional connection. A basic need to feel someone else's flesh against your own, feel the warmth of their life, feel their physical presence and in it feel a comfort. Before and after Rose he'd had hands to hold. It was just before had been easier than after. After, nothing seemed to quite fit.

Donna kept her physical distance. The closest she came was the many times she'd hit him, she just wasn't a touchy feely person. And that didn't bother the Doctor, not really. Holding hands wasn't a way Donna used to express emotions or friendship and he respected her feelings. Which didn't mean that he didn't miss holding hands.

For Martha the holding of hands was more of a means to an end. There was a huge amount of holding hands whilst running down corridors, and pulling each other in a different direction or into a hiding place. But there was very little of what could only be described as recreational hand holding. Martha was too down to earth, too real to feel the need for that sort of connection. In fact, especially at first, she seemed to spend most of her time with her arms crossed as the Doctor tried to dodge yet another subject. And the Doctor adapted to Martha's different personality and needs, he'd been more likely to grasp her wrist in prevention or her shoulders to focus her attention on him. He felt the need of a hand to hold though.

When he'd been reunited with Jack it hadn't helped. Their relationship was now so complicated and layered that the simple, natural, instinctive act of holding hands didn't seem to fit. The impenetrable amour, or defensive aura, or constant flirting, Jack possessed didn't lend itself to it.

The last time someone had spontaneously taken the Doctor's hand, rather than the other way round, had been when Professor Yana had discovered him at the end of the universe and had impulsively dragged him away to help. But the Professor had changed and that meant there was not even the remotest possibility they would ever clasp hands again.

But the Doctor had met Ella and found a hand.

She was very tactile, alarmingly so at first. It had taken some time for him to grow used to her ruffling his hair if it happened to be within reach, or touching his shoulder as they walked past each other, or resting her hand on his knee as she leant forward to passionately explain something she loved. But he had grown used to it, seeing that it was merely an extension of his need to hold hands and knowing he would miss it if it suddenly stopped.

She liked to hold hands as much as he did. In life or death situations. When they were sprinting from an enemy or running towards something brilliant. When he was reaching out for something it was really best he didn't touch, she'd take his hand and return their clasped pair to their sides. When it was cold she would slip her hand into one of his pockets and hold his hand their. When she left a room she would lightly clasp his hand as she passed him. If she was bored she would take his hand and draw light patterns on his palm with one finger. If she'd made some slight achievement or discovered something exciting she'd demand a high five.

When he'd stood on a grassy cliff top looking bleakly out to sea, feeling empty, cold and completely alone, she'd come to him, instinctively feeling his need, and taken both his hands in hers, looking deep into his eyes before resting her head on his chest and looking out to sea with him, the wind buffeting them from all sides.

The Doctor had found two happy hands to hold.

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**A/N: I'm so sorry that this another hands thing – it really wasn't supposed to be but I re-watched 'Fear Her' and that line wouldn't get the hell out of my head until I wrote this, sorry sorry sorry!**

**Please review anyway! xxxx**


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N:**** ummm….nothing, I don't own Doctor Who. I made up the quote – pretend the Doctor is saying it….**

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"I cried – but more importantly, so did you."

"What do you love?"

The words were slurred but distinct. Ella's left fore arm was resting on the table between them and she was leaning forward, looking up at him so the Doctor couldn't avoid her gaze.

The question was apropos to nothing and the Doctor was surprised by it. Ella was clearly more than a little tipsy, but the way she said it made him feel it was really very important to her for some unknown reason.

The warning bells should have started a deafening clanging in his mind hours before. Ella had disappeared for almost the entire day and when she reappeared it was clear she'd been crying, and still was for the matter.

She had been clutching a finished copy of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" in her hand and had only had time to mutter "It's just so _sad_ – " before he'd gathered her in his arms, one hand round her waist and the other cradling her head and tangled in her hair, as if by holding her as close to him as was physically possible he could soothe her grief for the fictional characters. He couldn't help it, despite his sympathy for her distress he loved that even after all she had seen she still had the ability and imagination to be so affected by something this simple, though he cried himself when he first read it.

When she became calmer she had expressed a strong desire for a drink, not the most conventional reaction to finishing a children's book but convention and Ella never did go together. While he could have found her one on the TARDIS he had thought a change of scene would be beneficial so he'd landed on Earth, two hundred and fifty years in her future, and taken her to the nearest bar. A couple of hours later and she was asking him odd questions.

"What do you mean?"

He knew what she meant, just not what she _meant_.

"What do you love? You must have the ability to love. It's very important. Very powerful magic is tied up in love. I don't want you to go all Voldemort on me. What do you love?"

He would have burst out laughing at this ingenuous explanation but for the look of intense seriousness on her face.

"I think you've had enough to drink now."

He removed the empty glass from her hand, left money on the table and led her out of the bar and into the crisp, frost laden air of a November night. Ella wasn't to be distracted, indeed she barely noticed that he had pulled her inside his coat with him. She found one of his hands, squeezed it to make sure she had his attention, and said

"Please, tell me."

He smiled as he looked down at her, huddled against his body for warmth, as the meandered slowly down the deserted street. In her drink befuddled brain knowing that he really and truly loved something was clearly very important. They had the whole of time and space, humouring her in this matter would cost him very little and mean a great deal to her. He took a deep breath of frozen air.

"Well – I love bananas and travelling and the TARDIS and my pockets being bigger on the inside and converse and the mole between my shoulder blades and the French and making people happy and Jane Austen – "

Here he paused for a moment as they'd reached the TARDIS and he was trying to take out his key without disturbing Ella, who was practically asleep leaning against him.

" – and Shakespeare and Dickens and my sonic screwdriver _very_ much – "

Inside, the TARDIS was warm and inviting.

" – and space age clockwork and my suits and how I can sometimes get away with being rude and when two impossible things happen in one evening – "

They'd reached Ella's bedroom door and the Doctor steered her gently inside.

" – and having two hearts – "

He sat her down on her bed.

" – and finding out new things – "

He bent to take off one of her shoes.

" – and my glasses – "

He removed the other.

" – and humans – "

He moved her so she was lying down.

" – and being able to regenerate – "

He pulled her quilt over her, whispering now she was all but asleep.

" – and J. K. Rowling – "

He stroked her hair from her face and stared to see how young and vulnerable she looked asleep, robbed of her cocky, enthusiastic and knowing smile.

" – and do you know what?"

His voice was barely audible now.

" – I think I might just love you, Ella Marlowe."

A slight smile appeared on Ella's asleep and she immediately became more familiar, to her it was no more than a pleasant dream, just as he wanted it to be. The Doctor placed the lightest of light kisses on her temple before leaving her room to watch over the TARDIS, and perhaps re-read "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" – when Ella awoke he knew she'd want to talk over every little plot detail and there was a lot to remember. Something to look forward to in the morning.

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**A/N:**** I am such a girl – I had to have the Doctor say that, I just did. And it is another fic about the last Harry Potter but that throwaway line in Shakespeare Code is too good to miss. And Ella's a good drunk. Please review x.**


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: ****Sorry it's taken a while to update, I've been busy. This is a bit of a random one – based on a moment when it started to rain and I had to sprint outside to get the washing in the first pair of shoes I could find….**

**I don't own Doctor Who.**

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Shoes and Memories

When she heard the Doctor's shout, Ella was sitting on her bedroom floor trying to make sense of all the things she'd stuffed into the box Sophy had given her and insisted was a 'Memory Box'. Ella had never really been into that sort of thing, she preferred to live the event in the now rather than stopping to take pictures and make videos and think of other ways of remembering it.

But since being given the box, to oblige Sophy, she'd been throwing random things in and it was now stuffed to bursting point. There were things dating from before she met the Doctor and things afterward and they were easy to separate.

Those before were tickets and postcards and birthday cards and photos of happy smiling people, either her friends or family.

Those after were little bits of rock and a broken sonic screwdriver and some shards of crystal and photos of seemingly random objects or landscapes that reminded Ella of a particular event or planet.

So, Ella was sitting, trying to sort out the jumble, when she heard the Doctor shouting to her from the control room.

"Ella! Come on! We're here, we have to go NOW!!"

Ella had had no idea they were actually on their way somewhere but it seemed that the Doctor had discovered something while she'd been absorbed in her task. And now she could tell by the tone of his voice something was going on and no hesitation was possible. She grabbed the first pair of shoes that came to hand and ran from the room. As she passed through the control room she crammed her feet into them and burst through the doors, slamming them shut behind her. Looking around she could see the Doctor already disappearing round a corner in the distance.

She raced after him but it was ten minutes before she caught up and that was only because he'd lost whatever they'd been chasing and had stopped to try and track it down with the sonic screwdriver. As she skidded to a halt beside him, rather out of breath, he looked at her in surprise.

"What?" she gasped.

He seemed to be unable to find the words, oddly, and could merely gesture towards her feet. Ella looked down and also experienced some surprise. The shoes she'd grabbed were her cerise pink, slightly platform, three inch, stiletto heels. She'd been in such a hurry the added height hadn't even registered.

Ella looked back at the Doctor and saw he was looking her up and down very, very slowly. Though the heels and fairly short shorts she was wearing did make her legs look impossibly long surely that was no reason for him to take _quite_ so long looking at her.

A sudden bleeping from the screwdriver recalled him to the situation and they set off running in the direction indicated, the Doctor holding firmly on to Ella's hand, as if worried she might fall over at any second.

Later, when the day had once again been saved, another picture was added to the collection in Ella's memory box. It showed a pair of pink high heels and the start of a pair of long tanned legs next to a pair of dirty white converse attached to brown, pinstriped trousers.

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**A/N:**** just a short little thing, hope you liked, please review x**


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N:**** not sure where this came from, fairly random and it's not a quote.**

**I don't own Doctor Who.**

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Stuck and Unstuck

Ella had heard about being 'stuck' from the Doctor's former companions. She knew what she was experiencing wasn't as bad as being left on the game station like Jack, or being stuck in 1913 with the Doctor a human, like Martha or even being forced to time travel without a capsule (sit down and don't go swimming for half an hour). But crash landing in London, 2013 was pretty bad, much worse than you'd first think.

They'd got caught up in some sort of vortex storm – which was unlucky in itself as they only happened once in a millennia. The TARDIS had been fairly frazzled and the Doctor had declared it would take at least a month to repair.

So they were stuck.

And it wasn't as if they could just go on living in the TARDIS and wander into London whenever they wanted, oh no. Well, the Doctor could, but for all anyone knew Ella was still living in London in 2013, and her family almost certainly were. There couldn't be another Ella walking around, time lines would be crossed and universes would explode. Or possibly implode.

The Doctor had explained this to her and when she'd argued that he'd probably be in London as well he'd said she was more conspicuous than he was and would get them into trouble. Which had rendered her speechless through the pure hypocrisy of it.

So, after a quick phone call to Jack to make sure another Ella wasn't already with him (accompanied by the Doctor's dark mutterings that Jack always nicked all his companions), she was packed off to Cardiff.

She had registered at a temping agency under the fake name of Penelope Fitzgerald and had been given and whole shiny new fake old life by Torchwood. Now, three weeks later she was working as a secretary for a wine trading company and enjoying being called Penny. Her life had settled into an odd sort of routine. She worked nine to five thirty (no one really worked nine to five anymore) every week day, spent her lunch breaks with Jack if he wasn't saving the world and wandering around the city if he was, and her nights out with him, and sometimes some of his team, trying to resist getting drunk.

At the weekends the Doctor would come up from London and they would do things during the day, sometimes with Jack and sometimes just the two of them.

Ella tried to steer them towards free or cheap activities – she was the only one earning.

The Doctor would often go shopping for parts and take her with him but she wouldn't understand.

He would sleep on the couch of her tiny, barely there flat for three nights and fill the cold rooms with enthusiasm and energy.

She didn't know who he'd been talking to but he'd picked up the habit of describing things as "crazy fun" and would ring her up during the week saying "How was work? Was it crazy fun?". The answer to which was always "no" – but she tried not to tell him that.

Every Monday morning she'd be knackered at work because neither Jack nor the Doctor seemed to need to go to sleep much and she didn't want to miss out on anything good.

The Doctor would walk her to work, hug her goodbye and wander off to get the train on which he would try to make friends all the way to London. He met some weird people – his favourite was the Irish nun who got on for three stops every other Monday and tried to convert him.

On the Friday afternoon in question, Ella was staring into space, bored. She wanted the phone to ring, for someone to come in asking her to do some typing, frank a letter, send a fax.

She wanted the Doctor to burst through the doors and explain at top speed why the TARDIS was ready a week early and how they were leaving immediately.

The phone rang.

"Good morn – er, afternoon, how can I help?"

"Have you decided what time it is?"

The voice was amused. Amused and male. Amused, male and belonging to one of the sales directors, Rob. She liked Rob and spent some time trying to strike a balance between enjoying his company and giving him the wrong idea. Though the fact she was completely unavailable for anything at the weekends did help.

"Hey, what can I do for you?"

"Just tell me when the fax from Newport comes through, please, Pen."

The novelty had worn off. She wanted to be herself again.

"Yup, will do, bye."

Silence. Only half an hour to go. This was her last day. She'd meet the Doctor from the station in an hour.

She allowed her mind to wander to what they'd do tonight. What she'd want to eat, what he'd want to eat, what they'd compromise on. Whether Jack would phone and they'd meet up somewhere. Whether they'd get a film and half watch it from the sofa, the Doctor's bed, as they grew middle-aged and domestic together.

Walking to the station she shivered. There had been a cold snap that morning and winter had suddenly arrived.

She pushed thoughts of money and what job she could get next to the back of her mind, they made her feel grown up, mature and old. She didn't want to. She wanted to feel starlight on her skin and use the moon to see by.

The glare of a neon sign flickered in front of her in growing darkness and she began to walk more quickly. This didn't feel like her world anymore.

She reached the station and went to wait by the barrier. They usually met outside but she wanted to be where it was warmer and light.

She heard his laugh before she saw him. He must have made another friend. She took a couple of steps forward – eager to see him again and let his buoyancy improver her mood.

He rounded a corner, still smiling. His new friend, a girl, walked beside him.

Ella's heart skipped a beat and then thudded more quickly, seeming to take up her whole chest.

The girl was blonde. Her hair shined and glittered as it swept over her shoulder. She turned to smile at him. He smiled back at her, not once looking for Ella. They passed through the barriers and paused. The Doctor passed a bag to her. He'd been carrying it for her from the train. They stood awkwardly for a moment, not knowing what to say or do. He glanced around for inspiration and spotted Ella just as the strange girl asked if he wanted to go for a drink. He turned back to her, not noticing her request, and explained that he'd seen the – friend – he was meeting, and would see her around.

He turned and strolled away, towards Ella.

His face changed. His smile became electric but smaller and his eyes sparkled. The strange girl knew him to be a lost cause and turned to leave.

Ella forgot her pangs of jealousy, her money worries and her boredom at work. As she saw him striding towards her, quickening his pace as he grew closer, hands taken out of his pockets in preparation to hug her, his expression fierce in his determination to reach her she didn't care about anything else.

He grasped her and swung her round, both laughing in delight, revelling in each other's presence.

He had good news – if they found one last piece for the TARDIS she would be fixed and they could leave. They found it the next day, said goodbye to Jack and left.

Penelope Fitzgerald – with her ridiculous name and excellent secretarial skills – disappeared.

Ella Marlowe was happy being unstuck again.

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**A/N:**** please review.**


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N:**** just a little thing, don't know where it came from, enjoy.**

**Don't own Doctor Who.**

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First Impressions

Ella's breath was coming in short sharp bursts. A stitch was forming in her side. She ran down corridor after corridor (all very sci-fi), one indecipherable from the next. A sharp corner appeared and she took it, feet skittering slightly like a young Bambi. She crashed straight into someone running in the other direction.

As they moved away from each other Ella's hand flew to her head, where she could already feel a bump forming, and the man's hand went to his shoulder, testing for injuries.

"Goddamit, why don't you look where you're going!"

His shoulder seemed to be fine because all his attention was on her now. Ella would have been happy to apologise and move on but his overreaction annoyed her and in a second she was just as angry as him. She glared at him through the fingers of the hand still clasped to her head.

"Me look where I'm going?! You ran into me!" he seemed about to respond but she interrupted. "I don't have time for this – just tell me where I can find a fusion manipulator and you can go."

The anger faded from his face, his eyes suddenly held laughter and a small smile curled his lips. Ella finally let go of head and put her hands on her hips, even more annoyed.

"What? What's so funny?"

He ignored the question and said instead,

"I'm actually looking for a fusion manipulator too, I'll show you where to go."

"Just tell me and I'll save you the trouble."

His only acknowledgement of this scathing reply was to smile (or smirk, Ella thought bitterly) before turning and beginning to run in another direction,

"This way,"

She followed him, having no other choice as she was now thoroughly lost. The only good thing was as they were running they couldn't really make conversation, though he didn't even seem to be breathing heavily – he was _so_ annoying.

When they finally made it back to the Doctor, about quarter of an hour later, Ella was still seething. She'd hoped to have got rid of the strange man after they'd reached the store but no such luck.

Her mood wasn't improved by the Doctor saying,

"Oh take your time, love, not in a hurry at all,"

He was in full building things mode – glasses in place, sonic screwdriver in hand, wires around his neck and he was holding his spare hand out for the fusion manipulator. As he took it from her he noticed the man and made brief introductions.

"Ella, meet Captain Melhuish."

She looked around expecting to see someone in regimentals, or possibly wearing a hat. Instead she met the twinkling eyes of the man she'd been shouting at.

"Hello," she said quietly.

"Hello," he replied, trying to conceal his laughter.

They were silent for a moment, watching the Doctor jump around sonicking and flipping switches. She turned to the Captain again,

"Sorry for – you know, ordering you about earlier."

"Don't worry about it,"

He was still laughing and she didn't mind so much anymore. She smiled back.

"You want to watch that one," the Doctor drew their attention. "You give her an inch and she takes a mile."

Ella frowned again.

"Oi!"

She looked at the Captain to deny the Doctor's aspersions on her character and found he was looking at her, smiling. She smiled again.

There was a buzz and a loud "OW!". The moment was broken and Ella went to go and see what she could do to help.

She didn't get the chance to speak to the Captain again or say goodbye but the memory of those brief moments when their eyes had locked stayed with her for some time.

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**A/N: ****Melhuish is pronounced Mel-ish if you didn't know.**

**Please review.**


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N:**** inspired by the emergency program thingy in Parting of the Ways but not as sad.**

**I don't own Doctor Who.**

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Emergency Program 415

Static sounded in the control room and Ella looked up in surprise as a hologram of the Doctor materialised, facing the doors. She rose from the seat, discarding her book, and moved closer to the Doctor's semi-transparent form as it spoke.

"This is emergency program 415. If this message is playing it means something has gone wrong and I need your help."

By this point Ella's emotions had moved from wonder to fear.

"I'm somewhere outside the TARDIS and I can't get back in." the Doctor took a deep breath, as if steeling himself to say the next words. "I've left my key in the TARDIS or I've lost it or I've made it into something and I can't use at as a key anymore. It's also possible that the TARDIS is just not letting me in because I've annoyed her."

Ella was now sympathising entirely with the TARDIS.

"So, if you just come and open the doors at your earliest convenience that would be wonderful."

She rolled her eyes but a moment later was shocked as the hologram turned to look directly at her where she stood off to the side.

"And Ella – don't even think about laughing at me."

With a couple of flickers the hologram disappeared. Ella stood in the sudden silence of the room staring at where the hologram had been. She shook her head a couple of times in disbelief but decided to obey the Doctor's orders.

She walked to the door and wrenched it open, making sure to block the Doctor's entrance with her arm in case he tried to brush past before she could have a good shout at him. He didn't though. He seemed not to even notice that the door had been opened. He stood there with his sonic screwdriver in one hand and pointing it at the odd looking box shaped object in his other. A couple of wires he'd looped round his neck and the glasses perched on his nose completed the look. Ella grew bored with waiting for him to notice her.

"Laughing! Who's laughing? You really scared me you idiot! What've you done with your key?"

"Ayad 'y hanfs 'ull."

He'd transferred his screwdriver to his mouth so he could prise something form the box.

"What?"

"I said – " the screwdriver was back in his hand "I had my hands full."

He finally looked up at her and his smile faded as he realised she was still barring the door. But he remained hopeful.

"Can I come in then?"

"You – you just – ARGH! NO!!"

She slammed the door in his face and stomped back to her seat. As she picked up her book the hologram flickered into life again.

"This is emergency program 415. If this message is playing – "

"I KNOW!!"

Ella threw her book and, only pausing to watch it fly through the Doctor's holographic head, stormed out of the room. She was quite sure the Doctor was capable of putting down whatever it was he was holding and using his own key, and then he'd have to work very hard if he wanted her to forgive him, Ella was thinking somewhere in the Caribbean…

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**A/N: I hope you liked it, please review.**


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N:**** this is linked to the previous chapter, slightly.**

**I don't own Doctor Who.**

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Emergency Program 263

It was just as she reached the point in drying her hair that Ella was becoming bored and her arm was beginning to ache that she was interrupted. Watching her hair flying about her head in the mirror as she pointed her hairbrush in its vague direction she suddenly caught sight of a hologram of the Doctor over her left shoulder. She spun around on her stool and it was all she could do to stop herself from screaming though she knew the thing in itself was harmless.

She'd also had some experience with what the Doctor considered and emergency – anything from being locked out to running out of milk – and told herself it was probably nothing to worry about and would be easily fixed – except if they'd run out of milk again which seemed to result in the Doctor and the TARDIS getting into some sort of argument followed by finding themselves in many unwanted destinations via rough landings. However hard she tried to convince herself of this though – muttering "It's nothing, it's nothing" under her breath – she couldn't help thinking that some of the emergency protocols must be linked to situations when the Doctor was in very real danger. Whenever his hologram appeared she was terrified of what it was going to say – the relief she felt when she found out it was something stupid generally turned to anger. Now as the hologram opened it's mouth to speak, looking just past her head, she held her breath,

"This is emergency program 263. If this message is playing it means that I've been trying to fix the TARDIS and I've got a bit – stuck."

Ella released her breath in a loud whoosh and felt her anger swiftly mounting.

"I'm not sure how or why I'm stuck or what I was fixing but I'm probably under the console or if I'm not there try the sitting room or if I'm not there try the third bathroom on the right of the second corridor. I'm not sure where you should look if I'm not there – " the hologram paused, as if it was thinking. " - Except that this message also applies if I get stuck in the wardrobe so you might want to check there. Please come and help me as soon as possible. Thank you."

The hologram flickered off and Ella sighed as she left the room to find that most frustrating of all men. As it was on her way to the console room she stopped to look in the wardrobe and was more relieved than she cared to admit that she didn't find him stuck in a dressing room or hopping around on one foot trying to get into a pair of trousers. These hazards avoided she proceeded on her way to the console room, prepared to find nothing there and be forced to search the whole TARDIS, which would take a long time and probably result in her getting lost.

However, as she entered the room she heard the distinctive clang of metal hitting metal. Though she was sure there was only one person who could be making that noise, she called out,

"Doctor?"

"Ella? I'm down here."

Ella couldn't see where "down here" was so she was forced to follow the sound of his voice round the console. She still couldn't see him, until she looked down between her feet and saw him looking back up at her. The only positive thing about the entire episode was that she wasn't wearing a skirt.

"What happened?"

She sounded like her mum talking to one of the four year olds she taught.

"I don't know." And he sounded a bit like a four year old. "I think the grill must have shut behind me and I didn't notice because I was too busy fixing this."

Whatever "this" was Ella didn't know but the Doctor had long ago given up telling her the actual name of anything vaguely technical, though she could sometimes work out what was what by colour.

"So, can you lift the grill up for me then?"

Ella was beyond arguing and she could almost feel her hair getting frizzy where she hadn't finished drying it. She bent down and hooked her fingers under the metal and began to pull it up, quickly realising it was much heavier than it looked. God knows how he hadn't noticed it shutting.

When she'd managed to lift it up and rest it on one side she got a proper look at him. He had discarded his jacket and tie and his shirt had come untucked and its sleeves were rolled up. The smudge of grease on his cheek and his ruffled hair made him look so adorable that Ella had to smile and she held out a hand to help him out. He looked blankly at it.

"What?"

"Aren't you going to get out?"

"No, I haven't finished fixing it yet."

Ella's smile faded and her anger flared again. With one fulminating look she abruptly left the room hoping that by the time she had finished drying her hair she would have calmed down a bit.

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**A/N:**** there you are, I hope you liked it.**

**Please review**


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N:**** this is the story of how Ella met Martha for the first time – set after series four, I think, so it will be proved wrong at some point but we have to wait sooooo long for the next series I don't think it matters!**

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"Have you met Miss Jones?"

Dashing through a corridor on the TARDIS the Doctor was no more than a blur to Ella, strolling the other way. As he passed she changed direction to follow him, though at a more sedate pace, intrigued by what had caused this sudden burst of speed.

Entering the control room she expected to see him spinning round the console flipping switches. Instead she witnessed the never before seen sight of the Doctor looking towards the ceiling as he grinned and chatted into a normal, everyday (well, almost) mobile phone.

She caught only the tail end of his conversation,

"Yeah, I know it, I'll be there. See you soon."

He hung up – and _then_ began to spin round the console flipping switches.

"Who was that?"

The Doctor looked up, slightly surprised by her presence.

"A friend, very old friend, of mine. Haven't seen her in ages. Martha Jones, I've talked about her."

Ella's heart, which had dipped at the 'her', sank completely at the name. He had indeed talked about her.

"Yeah, Doctor Martha Jones. She's fantastic. She saved the world."

She repeated his words back to him with only the slightest hint of jealousy and bitterness that the Doctor was far too overexcited to recognise.

"Yep! That's her!"

He threw one last lever and the TARDIS began to materialise with that familiar whooshing. Pausing only to throw on his coat the Doctor was out of the door and away before Ella had time to recover from the juddering halt.

She left the TARDIS more slowly, shutting the door firmly behind her, prolonging the moments until she had to look up and see them.

Finally she did, just in time to see the Doctor pick a strange woman up in a swinging, crushing embrace. Ella was sure she'd never seen two people smiling so widely. She took only a couple of steps closer, not wishing to intrude. Actually, she couldn't watch and stood staring at the ground with her hands in her pockets and her shoulders hunched against the cold wind.

At last they broke apart to look each other over and notice any changes. Over the Doctor's shoulder the woman spotted Ella and gave him a meaningful look that reminded him to make introductions.

"Oh, yeah," he turned towards Ella. "This is Ella Marlowe. Ella, this is Doctor Martha Jones."

Ella reached out a hand to shake Martha's, murmuring "nice to meet you", trying to ignore the almost blazing pride in the Doctor's voice and eyes.

Martha smiled warmly at her and her invitation to go and get a drink was directed at both of them, but Ella felt distinctly uncomfortable.

"You know what, you two have a lot to catch up on, I'll leave you to it."

"Are you sure?" Martha's question was filled with her kindness and genuine concern, mixed with not a little surprise. Most people didn't offer to leave the Doctor to his own devices. But she wanted to spend time with an old friend not a stranger and Ella knew that.

"Yeah it's fine; I'll go visit my mum and dad. Um – what's the date?"

"7th January."

Ella did a quick mental calculation. About a fortnight since she'd last seen them.

"Ok. Let me know when you want to go home,"

The Doctor nodded, a serious and contemplative look on his face as he watched her. Ella smiled, waved and walked away, leaving them to each other's company.

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When Ella knocked on the door of the home she'd grown up in she was greeted warmly by her mother. This initial enthusiasm was slightly marred when, looking over Ella's shoulder, she noticed she was alone and said,

"No Doctor?"

"No, he's seeing an old friend."

Julie Marlowe's look was a very knowing one.

"Ohhh, old girlfriend?"

"No! Well, she'd a girl friend but not a girlfriend."

"Ok," the 'if you say so' was silent but definitely there.

They'd made their way to the large kitchen, the hub of Marlowe family life.

"Who else is home, mum?"

Julie flicked on the kettle.

"Just me at the moment. Your father's gone shopping, we've got _no_ food, and James is god knows where. Something to do with a hook up or a link up –?"

"Isn't that an Xbox thing?"

"Darling, I don't know. He's always doing _something_ on that vile machine!"

Ella smiled; her mother never seemed to change.

"But, sweetheart, how are _you_? What about those nightmares of yours?"

Ella felt a twinge of guilt. For her that had been months ago, for her mother less than two weeks.

"Fine now, actually. We sorted it out."

"Oh _good_. I'm so glad to hear it."

The slightly stormy look on Ella's face clearly showed she had no wish to discuss if further.

"So, tell me about this old friend of the Doctor's."

Ella sighed.

"Her name's Martha Jones, _Doctor_ Martha Jones, and she seems really nice."

"How annoying,"

"Yeah, they're probably doing Doctory things in a Doctorish way."

"Those aren't words, Ella. You picked that up from him, you never used to talk like that. And don't roll your eyes at me!"

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A couple of hours later, Ella was up in her room trying to work out if there was anything she wanted to take back with her to the TARDIS. She heard the doorbell ring and her mother answer it, curious she went to the banister at the top of the stairs and leaned over it so she could see the door.

The Doctor was standing just inside the house, Martha beside him looking amused, being thoroughly hugged by her mother and talking nineteen to the dozen at the same time as her. Ella trudged down the stairs and, catching Martha's eye, smiled.

"I don't know why but for some reason they really love each other."

Martha smiled back.

"Beats his relationship with my mum, he got a good slap first time they met."

The other pair broke apart and after the Doctor introduced Martha, Ella's mother declared a cup of tea was needed and dragged everyone off to the kitchen. They were soon sitting round the table as Julie handed out mugs. Ella tried very hard not to notice that Martha drank tea like the Doctor while she drank coffee. After his first sip the Doctor beamed up at her mum,

"Julie, you star, you remembered how I take it."

"Of course I did. Ella, look in that cupboard behind you and see if there's any biscuits."

Ella stood and reached a hand as far back as she could on the unseen top shelf. She grasped something and pulled it out, victorious. As she plonked the packet back down on the table she got a look at what kind of biscuits they were. She and the Doctor spoke simultaneously,

"Ginger Nuts! Fantastic!"

Though Martha and Julie exchanged looks, the other two didn't even really notice as they reached forward to take a biscuit each.

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Some time later, after they'd said goodbye to both Julie and Martha and promised to visit them both as soon as possible, Ella and the Doctor were sitting in one of the TARDIS's sitting rooms. They had both felt the need to stop and buy several packets of ginger nuts before heading back. Now they sat mug in one hand biscuit in the other, completely content.

Ella was trying to read but had only managed half a page, even at her relatively fast reading pace, because the Doctor kept interrupting. Just as she settled back into the story she heard him utter a stifled moan of despair. Looking up she could see it was stifled because he had half a biscuit stuffed in his mouth but she couldn't see the cause of the despair, he was simply looking balefully into his cup of tea. He groaned again, a little more clearly,

"Oh, panic!"

"What sort of panic? End-of-the-world panic or I-lost-my-sonic-screwdriver panic?"

"Worse!" before Ella had the chance to enquire which example it was worse than he was talking again. "I dropped half my biscuit in my tea!"

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**A/N:**** there you are, I hope you liked it – I don't own ginger nuts either but they are very tasty.**

**Please review.**


	22. Chapter 22

**A/N:**** sorry about the lack of updates – but this is a long chapter to make up for it!**

**I don't own Doctor Who.**

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Of Mood Swings and Roundabouts

Once again they'd crashed a party and once again they'd been caught. The regularity with which this occurred caused Ella to wonder whether the Doctor had spotted the pattern and now did it for fun.

Though this time was a little different. This time they'd crashed a party made up of royalty and other such ruling dignitaries – and security was a lot more fierce.

"Ah, yes, hello!" the Doctor was pulling off a cheerful if slightly manic grin and trying to explain. "Sorry to just turn up like this with no warning and all that – um – but were sort of in the area and heard you were around - . If – if – I could just show you my identification?" as no one seemed about to shoot him just yet he risked reaching into his pocket for his psychic paper. He flipped it open and held it for the watching crowd to see. "As you can see I'm the King of – er – Tracy Island and I'm on a sort of – cruise."

He stopped to gauge the reactions of this watching him, worried for a second that it wasn't going to work. Suddenly everyone seemed to relax and the host, the Supreme Ruler of the Telheron, opened his arms in a welcoming gesture.

"Of course, it is wonderful to see you, your highness. I'm very glad you decided to come."

The Doctor bowed slightly in thanks and the Supreme Ruler smiled, before turning his attention to Ella.

"And this must be your Queen."

The Doctor turned to look at Ella too, as if considering her.

"Erm – yeah, she can be my queen."

Ella stared at him, affronted, before saying,

"I'm _so_ lucky I married you."

"You'll have to forgive her, she'd new to all this, hasn't quite worked it all out, have you, love?"

With the last words he turned from the Supreme Ruler to give Ella a nudge. She glared at him. The Supreme Ruler smiled in understanding,

"Yes, I quite understand, they are so hard at first. I must confess I was rather wondering about her dress."

Ella's look of annoyance turned towards the Supreme Ruler as he and the Doctor looked her up and down, the Doctor beginning to slowly nod in agreement.

"Yeah, I 'spose. Speaking of, there isn't somewhere she could get changed is there?"

Ella looked down at herself; she was wearing a hoodie, a long fluffy scarf, a shortish skirt, black tights and boots – nothing wrong with that. The Doctor was still talking though and in a tone that invited the Supreme Ruler to identify with him.

"I mean it's alright in private but in public, where everyone can see, it can get a bit embarrassing."

The Supreme Ruler was nodding sympathetically.

"Of course, yes." He clapped his hands and two male servants appeared. "If you will follow these men, your majesty, they will lead you to your room."

It was the first time the Supreme Ruler spoke directly to Ella and he even bowed low. She was still too angry to acknowledge it however and followed the servants, pausing only to threaten the Doctor in a low voice as she passed,

"I _am_ going to kill you, you know!"

He only grinned and waved as she left the room.

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Ella was taken to one of the most beautiful rooms she had ever seen. It was huge and built on several levels with a massive four poster bed and sofas and chaise-lounges dotted all over the place. There were paintings and antique mirrors hanging on the walls and bunches of fresh flowers in complementary shades on almost every surface.

She was handed into the car of two maid servants who led her over to a lovely dressing table. As she sat before the mirror Ella tried to suppress the feeling that she was living out one of her childhood fantasies. But it was every little girl's dream to be a Princess and her she was being dressed as one. Well, the Queen of Tracy Island at any rate. Her hair was curled and artfully arranged, her make-up retouched and she was put into a many layered and vaguely see-through aquamarine dress that even had a slight train. It wasn't the end though as she was given bracelets, earrings, a necklace and even a delicate little tiara. When she looked at herself in the full length mirror when they had finished she felt she was positively dripping in diamonds – even her shoes peeping out from underneath her dress had jewels sewn onto them.

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The real test was when she re-entered the hall where the other guests were still gathered. She even had the chance to walk down a wide staircase like the heroines do in stories. It wasn't like the films though when the whole room stops and stares. Ella did receive a fair few admiring glances though, enough to keep her happy, except that one of them wasn't the Doctor's.

She located him in the crowd and walked over. She had to stand right next to him and clear her throat before he stopped his conversation to notice. When he first turned around she thought she could see some shock and admiration in his eyes but he greeted her casually enough,

"Oh, hello queenie, alright?"

She felt irrationally disappointed but tried not to let him see it, instead directing a pointed look at the exotic, beautiful and curvaceous (rather than lanky) woman he'd been talking to. The Doctor noticed where she was looking and turned to make introductions.

"Um, Cleo this is Ella. Ella this is Cleopatra, Empress of the Nile."

The Empress uttered a smooth "how do you do?"

"What? The Nile as in the river?"

Ella was genuinely interested but Cleopatra looked slightly affronted.

"No. I was not aware that there was a river of that name. I am the Empress of the Planet Nile."

Ella's mouth formed a silent "oh", she felt suddenly more gangly and inelegant than ever. The Doctor rubbed his eye with a finger, smiling and shaking his head at her in amusement.

"It was a pleasure to meet you, Doctor."

Cleopatra held out her hand and the Doctor obligingly took it and winked.

"Seeya later, Cleo."

She smiled and left, ignoring Ella completely, already looking for her next victim.

Ella looked around the hall and saw that there was a huge amount of rather blatant flirting going on, some women even using fans. She pointed it out to the Doctor,

"What is it with these people? Is it like the rules of etiquette or something?"

"Sort of. If you have a good flirt with someone it's sort of like saying you like their county or planet or whatever and respect their leadership – no need to be subtle about."

Ella considered this, the Doctor wasn't the only one who could play by the rules and make friends and influence people.

"Right," she looked around again and spotted a good looking man. "Well, I'm going to go and tell someone I'm impressed by the size of their – er – country."

She wandered off, leaving the Doctor with no more than an airy wave and a naughty twinkle.

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Over the next few hours the Doctor felt some regrets that he had explained the rules of deportment in these sort of gatherings. He watched Ella's progress around the room as she sparkled due to her glittering diamonds and laughing eyes. It was noticeable that several of the people she left gazed after her as she found someone else to talk to, though she didn't spare them a second glance.

It was only when they passed each other in the crowded room that they exchanged a smile or a few words. At one point Ella confided in the Doctor that she thought she had this "inter-species flirting thing down", and who was he to argue.

Not until the early hours of the morning did the Doctor feel the need to leave the party. It was always fun to catch up on the gossip, eat platefuls of nibbles, have a few drinks and he'd been able to brush up his own flirting skills but now he was beginning to feel bored and restless as well as a little tired and wanted nothing more than to find Ella and get back to the TARDIS.

He looked round the hall searching for her, last time he'd seen her she was busy being taught how to flirt with a fan by no less than three young Princes but she was no longer with them. He felt some apprehension build inside him as he continued to search but couldn't find her. He moved more quickly through the crowds, pushing past people without bothering to apologise. He came to a sudden standstill when he saw her off to one side talking to an older man. Moving closer he managed to get a look at her face. She was wearing a very fake smile and her eyes were glazed over in boredom. Every so often she would nod but it was clear she wasn't paying much attention.

The Doctor smiled to himself, considering leaving her to squirm a little longer before deciding that the nicest thing to do would be to go and rescue her.

Ella was a little surprised not long afterwards to feel a friendly arm slip around her waist. Turning from the boring man she saw the Doctor smile briefly down at her before turning to the man. He bore all the signs of being about to launch into a mile a minute explanation – manic grin was in a place, there was suspicion of a wink around his left eye and he had the hand that wasn't holding onto Ella crammed into his pocket. He took a breath,

"Hello, sorry to interrupt, but times getting on you know. Must get queenie here home, limited shelf life and all that. Wonderful for a couple of hours but then they sort of wind down. All the usual symptoms – glazed expression, fake smile – I'm sure you've noticed. Anyway, we're posing for a portrait tomorrow so she needs her beauty sleep – a lot of it. Lovely to meet you, see you soon, best to the wife and kids."

With a brief handshake he steered Ella away from the poor man who was still stammering for an answer. While not very impressed by his methods, Ella was too grateful to protest. She sent him a teasing look,

"Not having fun any more? Where's Cleo when you need her, eh?"

"You'd stopped having fun, I was being chivalrous."

He was avoiding the issue. Again. But Ella had learned to pick her battles.

"Oh, yeah – chivalrous – that's you all over."

He wasn't paying attention so didn't pick up on her sarcastic tone or rolled eyes.

"Supreme Ruler at two o'clock. Abort. Change direction. Go, go, go!"

After he'd turned her suddenly and elbowed them through the crowds and Ella had managed to recover her dignity after being made to almost fall over, she looked at him in exasperation at his childishness.

"Do you want walkie talkies next time? So you can say 'Roger'? And 'Over and Out'? And 'FAB'? And we can have call signs like 'Han' and 'Leia'?"

He carried on weaving his way through the crowds but didn't let this stop him from shooting her an exasperated look of his own.

"One – you watch 'Spaced' too much. We'd use good call signs like – 'Tango Delta' – y'know, one's that would make sense?!"

"No way! We're not doing it like that cause then I'd be 'Echo Mike' which is rubbish!"

He ignored her.

"And, two – only Thunderbirds use 'FAB'. You know nothing about walkie talkie conversations."

"I _know_ Thunderbirds use 'FAB' – King of Tracy Island!"

"Oi! I was under pressure to think of a name and it's the first one that came into my head! Anyway you're the one who's obsessed – you're always singing the theme tune!"

"I've got a Thunderbirds mug – what's your excuse?"

"You get it mixed up with the Indiana Jones theme tune!"

"Anyway, you prefer Captain Scarlet and seem to enjoy Balamory so that shows how bad you're taste is!"

"Captain Scarlet is _invincible_! And I'll have you know that Balamory saved my life – I told Queen Victoria I was from there."

All the fight went out of Ella and she was immediately curious.

"Seriously? Queen Victoria thought you were from Balamory? As if it was a real place?"

"Yes."

His answer was short and he didn't look like he was enjoying himself anymore. He had acquired the look that indicated a painful memory had resurfaced and stood before him like a ghost. His arm slipped from Ella's waist and silence fell between them like a wall.

They managed to reach the door and escape the hall without further event, other the Ella waving goodbye to her three Princes with the fan she'd managed to acquire. Outside the early morning air was cold and Ella shivered under the scant protection of her dress. The Doctor was brooding and scowling darkly at the ground, his long strides didn't pause until he reached the TARDIS and he had to stop to unlock the door. Once inside he paused only to remove his coat before setting them in motion.

Ella stood near the door, watching him. Seeing his intent concentration as he flicked switches and pulled levers, staring blindly at the monitor. His body language sent a clear message, the hunched shoulders and determinedly averted gaze as obvious as him shouting at her to leave him alone. Not that he'd ever do that because it would be too much like admitting something was wrong.

She sighed softly and quietly left the room. It would be a battle to reach him in this kind of mood and she just wasn't feeling up to it. He didn't know it but it hurt when he pretended everything was fine and deflected all concern and pity and refused to answer questions or even look at her properly. His lies might help him in the short term but not in the long term and they didn't help Ella at all.

It was too hard. She felt like screaming and throwing things at the wall so they smashed and dissolving into helpless, hysterical tears. But she didn't, because she couldn't. That would be abandoning him as surely as walking out of the TARDIS and never seeing him again. She couldn't do that.

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**A/N:**** hope you liked it, sorry it ended on a bit of a sad note. I also don't own Thunderbirds (I do actually have a mug though!!), Captain Scarlet, Balamory or Indiana Jones or anything else I might have mentioned but I've forgotten.**

**Please review.**


	23. Chapter 23

**A/N: Haven't updated this story in ages, sorry. Hope you enjoy this little one though!**

**I don't own Doctor Who.**

"I hate Sundays, Sundays are boring."

"Ohhh," The Doctor looked deeply disappointed as he stared at the monitor.

"What? Where have we landed?" Ella was concentrating on zipping up her boots and wasn't too worried by his sudden outburst.

"That's - _wrong_, that's so wrong."

He was now checking the co-ordinates he had inputted, not changing them just trying to work out what he'd done to cause the problem.

Oh _no_, no, no, no, NO!"

He was groaning at the beginning but shouting by the end of the sentence. Ella continued to calmly button up her jacket.

"That's it! I am painting that button bright, bright,_ bright_ orange and I will never ever ever ever press it again!"

The Doctor had found the culprit - a small, dull silver button that he couldn't even remember pushing. Ella sighed at his easy distraction, knotted a scarf round her neck and walked to the door.

"No! Ella, no! Don't even _think _about opening that door!"

Ella snatched her hand away from the yale lock as if she'd been burned. Up until this point the Doctor's ramblings had been normal, the sort of comments he often made before walking blithely out of his ship. He'd made much worse ones actually.

But that was the difference, he always went out. The whole time they'd been traveling together they had never, not once, not gone and explored wherever they had landed. Something was definitely going on.

The Doctor came rushing down the ramp and grabbed Ella by the shoulders, forcing her to stare up at him.

"Ella, we can't go out. We have to leave."

"Doctor? What is it? What's out there?" She was beginning to feel scared now. If the Doctor thought it was so awful what did that mean for someone with normal levels of fear?

"Ella - it's a Sunday. I _hate_ Sundays. Sundays are boring."

She was stunned into silence. She could almost see his reasoning (which must mean she spent too much time with him) although she had always welcomed Sundays as a time to sleep without anyone wanting her to do anything. Noticing he was still staring at her she nodded distractedly. He immediately released her and ran back to the controls.

"Right, we are leaving, now. I do not do Sundays."

Soon afterwards the TARDIS once more came to a juddering halt.

"Here we are. C'mon Ella, off we go."

Ella followed him slowly, still trying to fathom out what had happened.

"Where are we?"

"Earth." He was already ten steps ahead of her and she had to hurry to catch up. "Got to get that paint."

He hesitated a moment, getting his bearings before striding off towards the nearest DIY store. He gave her a sudden manic grin.

"Oh, and don't worry, it's a Thursday."

Ella took this to mean before she knew it they'd be running for their lives. And they were.

**A/N: Please review! xx**


	24. Chapter 24

**A/N: Ella travels with the Doctor at the same time as Donna - how do those two meet though?**

**I don't own Doctor Who.**

Miss Noble, meet Miss Marlowe

"So! Where do you want to go? Somewhere old? Somewhere new? Or in between? This galaxy? Next galaxy? Million of years in the future? Or in the past? We could walk where no one has ever set foot before, or we could go shopping in this great market on the planet Xalen - they have these brilliant scarves that have these little pockets on them, totally invisible to the naked eye."

Donna grinned at him, spinning and twirling round the console, utterly in his element. She didn't know where she wanted to go, as long as it was with him she didn't care. She'd been waiting for this for so long, so long to live this life of his, visit all those amazing, alien places in his futuristic ship.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the incongruous sound of a phone ringing. The Doctor stopped abruptly and being to frantically search through his pockets. Eventually he discovered a conventional mobile phone, took a swift glance at the caller id and flipped it open to answer it.

"Ella!" He exclaimed, faked joviality filling his voice. "What? Parked all safe in London, obviously!" He was silent for a moment and he directed a worried look at Donna. Clearly he was receiving a good earful. "But - they were killing people, Ella!" Another pause. "Well, no, but - " He was interrupted again. "No - it just looked a bit suspicious." He sighed and answered the unheard question. "Just because it's suspicious doesn't mean I _have_ to get involved. But, Ella - " Silence again. "Ok, I'll come get you. Bye."

He hung up and stared at the phone for a moment.

"Oh, I'm in so much trouble." He muttered quietly before returning to the console controls once more.

"What was all that about?" Donna demanded, arms folded.

"Er, slight change of plan, sorry, Donna. We've just got to go back to London for a quick pick up."

"Pick up?" she asked, still suspicious.

"Yeah. I sort of forgot to tell you something, what with all the excitement back there." He tried to smile at her but his efforts withered under her stare. "I'm traveling with someone, someone else. Ella Marlowe. You'll like her, she's fantastic. But - um, I dropped her off to see her family, and then I met you again and well, things spiraled."

"So - you've already got a companion?"

"Yeah - if she doesn't leave after this. Please, please don't tell her I forgot - she'll kill me."

"I won't." Donna promised quietly, going to sit on the chair. She'd got her hopes up for nothing, again. She couldn't go off with him, someone else had got there first. He didn't need her.

They came to a juddering halt and the Doctor grabbed his coat and sprinted through the doors with no more than a "Come on!"

Donna followed more slowly, shutting the door carefully behind her. Looking up she saw the Doctor hammering at the door of an ordinary looking house. The door opened to reveal a middle aged woman, still beautiful with short dark hair. The woman exclaimed happily at seeing the Doctor and pulled him into a hug. Donna raised her eyebrows, this wasn't exactly what she'd been expecting.

She joined them on the doorstep just as the woman was inviting the Doctor in for a cup of tea.

"Yeah, ok." He agreed before turning to Donna. "This is Donna Noble, old friend of mine. Donna this is Julie, Ella's mum."

Ah. That explained that then.

"Nice to meet you," Julie said, giving her a quick look over. "Come in, Ella shouldn't be too long." She lead them down the corridor, murmuring to the Doctor as she did. "_Another_ friend Doctor?" He just grinned at her happily, nothing could upset him today.

Julie waited until she'd made them both a cup of tea and supplied the Doctor with biscuits before she went to the foot of the stairs to call her daughter.

"Ella! The Doctor's here!"

"About bloody time!" came the muffled reply, the Doctor winced. Footsteps sounded loud on the stairs, there was a pause and then a thud as whoever it was jumped the last four steps.

Ella Marlowe entered the kitchen at a half run but soon pulled to a short stop and Donna had a chance to get a better impression of her. Yeah, this was more along the lines of what she was thinking. Tall and skinny, a little like the Doctor himself, Ella had a mass of long dark curls and sparkling hazel eyes, at this moment narrowed in suspicion. She was beautiful, Donna realised, but it was more because of

her personality shining through her features than in any perfection of individual elements.

Ella's hands went to her hips.

"So." she declared and Donna noticed the Doctor had got nervously to his feet.

"Um - hello." He tried, pathetically in her opinion. In Ella's as well it appeared.

"_Where_ have you been?"

"I - " he received no chance to get any further.

"I told you to stay in the TARDIS for one, maybe two hours, fix something or whatever, while I visited my mum. Could you do that? Could you _hell_! You had to go running off, like always, and get yourself into trouble!"

The Doctor was speechless but Julie suffered no such problem.

"Ella, please, there is no need to shout."

The Doctor sent Julie a grateful look, Ella glared at her mother before transferring her gaze to the ceiling. When she looked back at the Doctor her anger had vanished and she was looking concerned.

"Are you alright?" She asked quietly and Donna realised she'd been angry because she'd been worried. Scared for the Doctor being on his own.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He replied just as softly before pulling her into a hug. When they broke apart he was grinning again, his world all fixed up for the moment. "Ella, look who I found!" He exclaimed, gesturing towards Donna. Ella looked towards Donna then back at him, smiling but obviously rather confused. "Ella Marlowe meet Donna Noble. Donna, meet m - Miss Marlowe."

There was an odd hesitation there and Donna was sure he'd tripped over saying something else. Ella hadn't noticed, or was ignoring it, however, and was smiling at her.

"_The_ Donna Noble?"

"One and only!" the Doctor declared, voice brimming with pride.

"Great to meet you!" Ella exclaimed, coming to sit beside her. "He's told me all about you, good work with the slapping."

"Oi!" the Doctor interjected, Ella merely sent him a naughty twinkle with her eyes.

Slightly confused and more than a little surprised that the Doctor had thought to tell people about her as he had spoken to her about Rose, Donna struggled to find some words. She smiled at Ella but didn't know what she could say that wouldn't hurt the girl's feelings. The Doctor hadn't mentioned her once, had talked about Martha but not Ella, had forgotten her in fact. Her thoughts were clearly showing on her face as Ella frowned and glanced towards the Doctor before back at her.

"Did he forget about me again?"

Donna raised her eyebrows, shocked by Ella's cavalier attitude.

"Donna!" the Doctor whined and Donna shrugged at him, she hadn't exactly broken her promise anyway. The Doctor strategically retreated behind the table and moved as far away from them as was possible without running off.

"God, Doctor, it was a few hours!"

"It was Donna's fault!"

"Don't get me involved, space boy." Donna was sitting with her arms crossed, rather enjoying the scene.

"I came back thought didn't I?" he pleaded.

Ella raised an eyebrow at him before sighing.

"I'm going to fit you with a tag or something, and you say _I'm_ not allowed to wander off!"

The Doctor grinned again, taking this to mean he'd been forgiven.

"Right - are we off then?"

"Yup, let me say goodbye to mum."

Ella left the room to find Julie and the Doctor nicked a couple of biscuits before heading towards the front door, Donna followed slowly. She hadn't thought she would have to say goodbye again so quickly.

Ella and the Doctor were embraced ruthlessly by Julie several times, even Donna got a quick hug, and then the three of them walked off. When they reached the door of the TARDIS the Doctor got his key out and stepped back to allow Ella to go in first.

"Well, I better say goodbye too," Donna said bravely, effectively halting the other two mid-step.

"But - I thought you were coming with me? We were going to see everything!" The Doctor sounded a little like a petulant child denied a treat.

"I was, but it's not just you is it, Doctor." She nodded towards Ella, willing him to understand and not hurt the poor girl too much. The Doctor also turned to stare at Ella for a minute before looking back at Donna.

"We want you to come though! Don't we Ella?"

Ella grinned broadly.

"We'd love it." she declared, unconsciously sounding very like the Doctor.

"Really?" Donna was surprised, going by what she knew about the Doctor and other girls he'd travelled with, this wasn't the response she would have from most of them.

"Yes! Come on!" Ella reached forward and grabbed Donna's hand, pulling her into the TARDIS.

"Yeah, I brought in all your bags and everything, I'm not taking them out again." was the Doctor's slightly less flattering reply, sincere none the less.

Ella laughed when she saw Donna's pile of bags and sent the Doctor a teasing look, but refrained from saying anything.

"Come on," she said, picking up a couple of the suitcases. "I'll show you to your room."

Donna grabbed the others and followed her, lending half an ear to Ella's artless conversation. She wasn't entirely sure how the Doctor had managed to forget this one for as much as a minute.

When she returned to the console room some time later, showered and changed, she could hear the pair of them singing along to some music she'd never heard before, each fighting fits of giggles. The Doctor spotted Donna first and grinned.

"Miss Noble - most welcome!" He declared waving his arms to engulf the whole of the TARDIS. Ella poked her head round the console from where she was sitting on the chair, Donna went to join her.

"Right!" the Doctor exclaimed. "Where were we?" And with a wicked grin he set the TARDIS in motion - flinging the three of them to the floor.

**A/N: Hope you liked it! Silly Doctor. Please review xxx**


	25. Chapter 25

Sink In Good Oblivion

It was three in the morning when she finally gave up on trying to get to sleep.

Two hours before she'd given up lying in the dark and had turned on the lights. An hour after that she'd given up on her book. And a hour after that she gave up on the internet and writing emails.

This was no nightmare related sleeplessness as she experienced before, this was good old-fashioned insomnia and she had no idea where it had sprung up from. She was the type of human who needed ten hours sleep a night to function properly.

She got out of bed, slipped into her dressing gown and out of the room. At night the lights of the TARDIS were dimmed, only a soft blue glow emanating from somewhere near her feet. The ship was hushed, almost eerie without the usual sounds of flight and the Doctor fixing something, probably singing at the top of his voice.

Her bare feet padded almost silently along the wooden floor, without direction. She didn't know what to do to help her sleep, or even clam her mind. Briefly, she thought of going to get a drink of water or possibly going to look outside the TARDIS doors and see where they were. The Doctor usually set them to orbit somewhere at night and she could sit in the doorway and watch the constellations. Neither option was particularly appealing, however, and she let her feet lead on.

She paused outside the library doors and, finally making a decision, went inside. She had always found the library a comforting, calming place. Quite apart from the heavy wooden furniture and quiet atmosphere, there was the feeling that, between the bound covers of hundreds of books, the characters and stories lay quiescent until they were opened and called to their duty.

Setting off down one of the aisles, she let her hand trail softly along the spines of the third row. She came to the end of the shelves and while pausing to make a decision between turning right and turning left, her attention was arrested by a small table in front of her on which sat a pile of books, with one lying open beside them. Picking up the open book she read the first part of the page.

"Chapter XVI. On a thyme-scented, bird-hatching morning in May - "

She recognised it instantly and quickly set the book back down again. Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbevilles. She'd read it before and never wanted to again, despite having enjoyed it on some level. Her romantic, faithful heart rebelled absolutely from the ending.

Casting an eye over the remaining pile she picked up one that had a book mark sticking out of it. She opened it at that page.

"Oblonsky was a straightforward man in dealing with himself."

Someone had the read the first chapter and never got any further, she could guess who that was. Dipping her head she inhaled the scent of the book, the dusty ancient scent that pervaded all good libraries. She glanced at the bookmark that she'd been flipping between her fingers and found it was half a ripped ticket for the original performance of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto. Smiling softly she flipped to the flyleaf and read the title.

"Anna Karenin. L. N. Tolstoy."

She was intrigued, it was one of those books that everyone knew the title of but very few had actually read. She turned to the first page, noting along the way that it was a first edition and signed by the author himself, thanking the Doctor for all his help. There was a story in there certainly.

"All happy families are alike but an unhappy family is unhappy after its own fashion."

That seemed as good a way to start as any, she continued. As she read, she began to walk. She briefly considered curling up in one of the deep leather chairs but her legs felt restless, despite all the running she had done earlier that day, and she kept moving.

Before she knew it she had left the library and walked some way down the hall. At the end of the second chapter, she glanced up and was surprised to see she was in a part of the TARDIS she didn't recognise. She'd been following inclination more than anything, trusting to the ship to keep her out of trouble.

The shoulder of her dressing gown slipped down her arm and she barely noticed. Rather welcomed it, despite the cool air of a night time TARDIS, as a relief from the odd, vaguely feverish heat felt by those deprived of sleep.

There was only one door in this stretch of the corridor and she was willing to bet she'd never been in that room before.

Yielding to a sudden, overwhelming impulse she reached out and turned the handle, letting the door swing inwards.

Immediately she became aware there was someone in the room. It was in deep darkness and all she could see was her own shadow, stretching away from the light of the door, but she knew there was someone there.

From her left, there suddenly came the rustling of bed covers and a table lamp was switched on.

"Ella?" came a sleepy, confused voice. It appeared the Doctor was a very light sleeper.

"Sorry," she apologised immediately, closing the door and walking towards his bed where he sat blinking, oblivious to his tousled hair and toplessness.

"S'alright." He replied, rubbing his eyes before squinting up at her. "Couldn't sleep?"

"No, I was just reading and ended up here." she still sounded apologetic but the Doctor merely directed a brief, wry look at the ceiling. He knew exactly how she'd _happened_ to end up in his room. His ship continued to meddle with the pair of them as she had done from the start.

"Get in," he instructed, jerking his head to the other side of the bed. She clambered over his legs and settled onto the pillows, tucking her now icy toes under the quilt for warmth.

"What book did you get?" he asked, lying back down again.

"Anna Karenin." She replied, opening it up again at her page.

"Great first chapter," he declared, already half asleep, and she smiled as her suspicions were confirmed.

She spent an hour or so absorbed in the story before lying down beside him and finally getting to sleep herself, lulled by his steady breathing and the double beat of his hearts.

**A/N: I bet you can guess I wrote this when I was trying to get sleep... Please review!! xx**

**Just had to repost to put in the comment -- gratuitous topless Doctor! Always is a good thing!**

**I feel very silly - this is the third time I've had to repost this chapter - this time because I got mixed up between Beethoven and Bach - in soooo much trouble :(**


	26. Chapter 26

**A/N: I don't own Doctor Who - and I nicked the title from a line in Robin Hood...**

Say the words then, handsome.

Igiorni had been awful. Awful and sickening. The sort of planet that caused despair to well up in Ella without her being able to combat it.

Though, perhaps that wasn't fair. The planet itself was beautiful, completely covered in rainforest dotted by clearings where communities had settled. At first, Ella had merely worried that sometime in it's future this planet was sure to have a big global warming problem, but soon the human colony occupied all her thoughts.

It had been the sort of situation that made her feel disgusted with her entire race. The year was 5452 and a group of humans were using this planet as a settlement, one of the many dotted amongst the stars. Unfortunately there were natives to this planet. The Igiornians were a passive race, one that communicated telepathically. Because of this the humans who arrived there took them for an inferior species and proceeded to take control. The state that they soon found themselves in was incomprehensible to the Ingiornians and they suffered without seeing a way out of it.

When the Doctor arrived however, all of that changed. He immediately took the humans to task but was met by violent opposition, was arrested again actually with Ella along with him. But, unlike everyone else on that planet, the Doctor could hear what the Ingiornians were saying and Ella realised that it was agony for him, not that he said.

Eventually, the side of righteousness was victorious, led by the Doctor, but the path had been bloody and filled with needless death and destruction. As soon as equality was restored the traveling pair hastened to leave, leave the stench of human failings. Since launching them from the planet with more force than perhaps was necessary, the Doctor had been leaning against the railings that circled the console, disillusionment clear in his face. He'd always declared humans were brilliant, but this ugly side to their race reared it's head time and time again.

Ella looked up from where she'd been sitting on the chair, staring at the floor, and saw his expression. He looked so folorn, it hardly seemed to matter that they'd left the planet in a much better state than in which they'd found it, it was that it had happened in the first place. Ella liked to think that most humans were basically good people - this latest adventure had shaken that theory. It appeared they had no respect for others that inhabited the universe.

She couldn't have the Doctor giving up hope though. No, humans needed him, she needed him, and if he gave up on them things would get a lot worse. He looked up soon after and saw her gaze still intent on his face.

"What?" even that one word cost an effort.

"I've got an idea." He barely quirked an eyebrow to invite her to share it. "Can you take us to Montmartre in Paris. Probably quite near my time would be good."

"Now?" If she hadn't realised already that would have told her that this time was different to others, usually he was more than happy to move on to the next adventure, replace the emotions he was currently feeling with some new ones.

"Yeah," she confirmed, this was the sort of situation when action was going to be more beneficial than allowing him time. "I've got something to show you."

"Ok," he agreed, intrigued despite himself. He moved forwards slowly, as if his limbs were weighing him down more than they should, and began to work the controls. Before she knew it she was flung to one side as they landed.

Together they walked down the ramp to the doors. He let her out first, holding back so she could duck under his arm.

"Montmartre, Paris." He declared before looking down on her. "Where do you want to go?"

"Hang on a sec, I have to get my bearings." Ella was turning slowly on the spot, taking in land marks and street names. "Right, that's Sacre Coeur so we need to go - that way."

She set off towards a street angling off to the left and he followed, quickly catching her up so he could take her hand. It was one of those moments when he needed that contact more than anything.

They trailed through the streets, the Doctor happy to be in Paris again, he hadn't visited in so long, too long, Ella concentrating on finding their destination.

"Oh, here we go," she finally announced. "This is the Square des Abbesses and this - " she turned him round so he was facing a wall, tiled in blue with white writing scrawled across it. " - is Le mur de je t'aime - the love wall."

His breath caught in his throat as he realised what they were looking at. On this wall were the words "I love you" written in three hundred and eleven different languages.

Ella regarded the wall with a small smile, it had always resonated with her for some reason. She still held a very vivid memory of it from the first time she visited Paris. They stood in silence for a few minutes before she took a breath and began to talk, quietly explaining the wall's history, reversing their roles and taking the pressure from him for these brief moments.

"It was put up in the earl 90s, it was this bloke Frederic Bacon's idea - around the world in eighty I love yous. He had over a thousand people write the words, all living here in Paris and chose three hundred and eleven to write up here. Look - " She pulled him a little closer to the wall so they could make out individual declarations. She raised her free hand to point certain ones out. "Ich liebe dich. Te quiero. Yr wyf yr dy garu. Ti amo. Amari. And this is French braille, and this is American sign language. And look, most important - Je t'aime."

He studied the words for a moment and then looked from the words to her, intrigued that she'd declared the french one as more important than the english. He would have asked, planned to actually, but she was still studying the wall with a light in her eyes that spoke of the meaning these words held for her, how they made her feel. He had been impressed by how much she knew, and her accent in the different languages, but what he - loved was that she had seen he was flailing against the continued pressure, the unrelenting nature of his life and this was the idea that had come to her, how she had decided to help him.

And it had worked he realised, turning back to look at the wall again. A race that could decide that to create something like this and display it for all the world to see was really a very good idea couldn't be half bad, on the whole. They definitely had to be worth fighting for.

The pair of them stood in that small garden, feet crunching on the finely graveled ground and bird song echoing from the trees, for a long time. Mostly in silence, but she told him how she had read Jane Eyre sitting on that bench there. When they finally decided to move they strolled the streets a little longer, feeling the world around them and beginning the regain the feeling of it being worth it.

It was not until some time later that the Doctor realised that those three words, only sometimes it was more and sometimes less, maybe even one, those three words that he could never bring himself to say, that meant so much particularly in the human culture. The three words 'I love you' had passed between him and his companion many, many times that afternoon in Paris. And he didn't regret it, not once.

**A/N: I thought that was a nice idea. It's a real thing - I've seen it! If you happen to go to Paris and have the chance go and find this wall, there is really something about it that is fascinating. I would have liked to be able to put in more of the translations but had a bit of trouble with some of the script... **

**Please review to let me know what you think xxxxx**


	27. Chapter 27

**A/N: short little thing - so short i couldn't even think of a title for it...**

The Doctor walked past Ella's open bedroom door, paused and retraced his steps. He leant against the doorpost and inspected the carnage.

Her wardrobe doors were open and from them spilled a tumble of shoes, her quilt had lost it's tenuous grasp on the bed and slipped to the floor, clothes were strewn about the place and interspersed amongst them were books, DVDs, more shoes, a few tubes of make up, scrunched up pieces of paper and a comb.

In the midst of this wreckage sat Ella, casting a despairing look around her.

She glanced up and met his inquiring eyebrows.

"I can't find my dressing gown," she explained, looking back at the mess of her room. "It's like a er - pistachio green."

He was touched by her naivety that he would be helping her look. Anyway, he knew what colour it was, he'd seen her wearing it loads of times. It was about four sizes too big and fluffy, she always looked so cute and sleepy in it. To distract himself from this train of thought, he shoved his hands in his pockets and began to talk.

"Human's - you're so weird. Why pistachio green? Pistachios aren't even green!"

"Pistachio ice cream is green." She commented, slightly muffled as she looked underneath the bed.

"But that's not even real! All fake, fake, fake," he protested, going to take a cursory look in her wardrobe.

"Yeah, spose." she replied, not really bothered who won the point, more concerned as to where to look next.

The Doctor's attention was caught by the door and he walked for to swing it shut. There, hanging from the hook on the back, was her definitely-not-pistachio green dressing gown. He unhooked it and held it out to her triumphantly. He'd found it and he hadn't even been helping her look. Now he would just proceed to not help her tidy up. He really wouldn't, he'd just make her bed so he could lie on top of it while they chatted.

**A/N: Perhaps it should be called the last of the time lords is manipulated... please review anyways! x**


	28. Chapter 28

**A/N: I don't own Doctor Who**

Cinderella

Ella sank down more deeply into the hot bubbly water. This was what she needed. Her eyes drifted shut and she allowed herself to slowly relax, let the tension and stress of the last few days drift away.

She was on the verge of falling asleep when her bathroom door banged loudly open and a draft of cold air flowed through to disturb her. A draft of cold air and an overexcited Time Lord.

She opened her eyes quickly, squeaked a little bit and was about to splash around in surprise when she remembered that the bubbles were the only things protecting her modesty. Moving was not an option and neither was hitting him, she slipped down further still into the water and contented herself with scowling at the Doctor, he didn't seem to notice.

"Ella! I have had _the_ most brilliant idea!" He looked absolutely ecstatic.

"Was it so brilliant you had to come in while I was having a bath?" Sarcasm seemed the best way to go. "You probably don't know this Doctor, but humans have these things called 'boundaries' and walking in on your friends who are having baths and are _naked_ is regarded as overstepping these 'boundaries'."

She was livid, he had just waltzed in, oblivious as anything and she was sure she had locked the door. If she found out he'd used his sonic screwdriver on it he was going to be in even more trouble. The Doctor waved her words aside.

"But I've had a thought!" As if this excused anything. "Right, you know your name is Ella?" he paused dramatically, watching her for a reaction. She sent him a disbelieving look. "Well, you know there's a fairy tale princess called Cinderella?" Good god, where on earth was he going with this? "How brilliant would it be if your nickname was Cinderella?"

Ella raised her eyebrows. Was there more to come? With him it was hard to tell. He seemed to interpret her look as lack of understanding.

"You know? Cinder – Ella? Get it? Ends with Ella? Which is your name?"

She closed her eyes again, trying to gather some patience.

"I know what you're trying to say, Doctor." She ground out. "I just don't know why you had to walk in on me having a bath to say it.

He grinned down at her.

"Thought you'd like to know!" he informed her ingenuously. Then he turned on his heel and walked cheerfully out of the room. "See you later, Cinderella." He called over his shoulder.

Ella groaned and sank underneath the water, it was going to be ages before he got over this one she could just feel it.

Three days later they arrived on a planet that the Doctor declared was sending out a signal that announced a sale of some really nice bit of technology and there was no way he was missing that. Ella followed him a little more reluctantly, not being that enthusiastic about the random bits of alien tech that he seemed to pick up wherever they went, but she greeted the escapade philosophically. You never know what might happen or who you might meet in these situations. As it turned out the Doctor had the chance to meet one of his favourite inventors, Ashunt Skelving, before he had started inventing anything.

In these gatherings one of the pair of them was bound to be on the verge of creating a paradox, generally by complementing whoever it was on something they hadn't done yet. Ella's thoughts were not occupied by this worry though; she was too busy fuming at the Doctor.

When he had first spotted Skelving he bounced up to him like an overexcited puppy and began declaring how brilliant he was, considerably confusing the poor man. Eventually, Skelving managed to get a word in edgeways and asked the Doctor who he was.

"Oh, sorry," the Doctor replied, the elation of the moment having made him forget that the poor man had no idea who these strangers were. "I'm the Doctor and this is Cinderella."

Skelving looked towards Ella, brows raised enquiringly.

"Like in the story?" he asked, curious.

"Nothing like." She replied through gritted teeth, glaring at the Doctor who continued to look oblivious.

Two weeks after that, Ella was scrabbling around in the TARDIS's wardrobe, trying to find something to wear in 1780s England that wouldn't get her arrested within minutes of stepping out of the doors. Finally finding a dress that was probably passable she struggled into it, omitting the corset because there was sure to be running involved and the Doctor really didn't get how difficult that was when your entire upper body was being crushed. She left the wardrobe, feathered hat in hand and was about to entire the console room when she heard the Doctor groan and then turn in the vague direction of the corridor and yell,

"Come on, Cinderella, we haven't got all day!"

Pursing her lips together and narrowing her eyes, she entered the room.

"I _know_," she told him. "But you don't have to deal with the hooks and the laces and the layers and the bloody petticoats do you?"

As much as she was able, with the wide skirt and ridiculously heavy material, Ella stormed out of the TARDIS. Her precipitous exit meant she missed the Doctor's slightly slack jawed reaction to her appearance. He gathered himself together and followed her outside; all ready to tell her useless facts about the era but determined to avoid commenting on the fashions of the time.

Two months after that, they landed on a planet called Louange in the 63rd century. Somehow they had managed once again to land themselves right in the middle of a war and the side that found them first were definitely hostile. They were treated as enemies and made prisoners of war, locked up in opposite camps that were divided by gender.

The Doctor, unsurprisingly, managed to make himself heard fairly rapidly and was brought before the leaders of the army. He proceeded to insult them into letting him help and allow him some authority. His first demand was to have Ella released, unfortunately she was nowhere to be found. While he had been shooting his mouth off, she had been listening and had discovered the underground resistance and joined it.

It was a week before they were reunited, just after peace was declared. She was collected from the headquarters of the resistance by a jeep and dropped off in a rubble-strewn street of the city. Completely disorientated, she had no idea where she was. Employing a maxim her aunt had laid down for use in airports, she followed everyone else and soon found herself at the army head quarters.

The Doctor was standing talking quietly to a young private, keeping a keen eye on the moving crowds, waiting to see Ella amongst them. His eye caught hers and relieved, ecstatic smiles blossomed across their faces.

He strode towards her, as she hurried towards him, and caught her up in his arms, lifting her from the ground. Setting her down he looked into her eyes.

"Hey Cinderella," he said quietly and she smiled more broadly still, hugging him again.

Perhaps it wasn't _that_ bad a nickname, she reflected, he had given it to her after all.

**A/N: Please review let me know what you think - bit of weird one this. xx**


	29. Chapter 29

**A/N:**** I had another idea of why the Doctor might call Ella Cinderella – you can just pick whichever one you like more!**

**I don't own Doctor Who.**

Cinderella – The Second Interpretation

Ella was sitting on the floor of her old bedroom at home. She'd always imagined she would clear out all the old rubbish she'd collected over the years, before she went to uni, but the Doctor had come first and she had never got round to it.

Now, her mum was sick of the piles of old school books, out of date calendars and children's books that lay around gathering dust, and echo of what her life had been before. Finally caving to her the guilt trip Julie inflicted on her, Ella had promised to sort it out.

She and the Doctor had picked a day to visit and arrived expecting a welcome party. Instead they had found the house empty. Ella had had to search throughout the TARDIS for half hour to find her old bunch of keys, but she eventually did and let them it.

Ella went upstairs to make a start and the Doctor went off to the kitchen to put the kettle on, quite at home in the now familiar house.

He entered her room with the tip of his tongue just poking out between his lips, concentrating on the two steaming mugs he was holding.

"Here you go,"

Ella glanced up and smiled.

"Thanks," she said and took the cup he was offering her. "Here, look what I've found."

She handed him a pile of photographs, taken at a fancy dress party a couple of years ago. The Doctor flicked through the first few with no more than a cursory glance – they contained people he had never seen before and as such weren't overly interesting. He suddenly stopped leafing through, staring at the picture he had unearthed.

"God, what did you go as? Princess Glittery Fairydust?" he sounded not a little disgusted.

"Do you not pay attention when we watch children's tv? Her name is Princess Sparkle." Ella leaned over his shoulder to get a proper look at the photo. "And I wasn't dressed as her anyway. I went as Cinderella."

The picture showed her in a snow white, full-skirted dress covered in sparkling sequins, posing with a hand on the shoulder of who could only have been Prince Charming.

"Cinderella?" he still sounded skeptical.

"Yeah, the theme was something to do with your name and Cinderella has 'Ella' in it."

"So what's his name – Charmin?" The Doctor thought it was a bit ridiculous, and that lad looked stupid, really he did. Ella frowned at his sarcastic tone.

"No, he's called Charlie actually – the first part's the same."

The Doctor snorted. Ella reached over and plucked the photo from his grasp, looking at it a bit more closely.

"Charlie, I haven't seen him in ages. I wonder how he is."

"I'm sure he's getting along charmingly." The Doctor replied quickly but Ella merely looked at him, signaling her lack of appreciation for his play on words. He continued grinning at her until he won a reluctant smile in return.

A couple of hours later they'd managed to stuff two bin liners full of stuff to throw out and another two rucksacks of things Ella wanted back on the TARDIS. It hadn't escaped the Doctor's notice that she had slipped the photo into one of the outside pockets but he refrained from commenting. He wasn't sure he wanted to know.

Ella scribbled a quick note for her parents and left it on the kitchen table. Before locking the front door, she took a last look around the hall – it felt like she was actually, properly leaving home this time and she was quite glad she didn't have a send off party, it would only have ended in tears.

She shut the door and took a deep breath before turning away.

The Doctor was at the corner of the house waiting for her to join him for the short walk back to the TARDIS. One of her bulging rucksacks was perched on his back, looking absurdly small. He called back to her to hurry.

"Come on, Cinderella! We haven't got all day!"

She smiled, swung the other bag onto her shoulder and went to join him – not looking back once.

**A/N: Yes, the Doctor and Ella watch a kids tv programme about Princess Sparkle.**

**And I would remember Charlie if I was you – he might become important…..**

**Please review xxx**


	30. Chapter 30

**A/N:**** I don't own Doctor Who.**

Taken For a Mug

"Mum! You're never going to believe it!"

Ella stormed so violently into the house that the door banged behind her, almost catching the Doctor by surprise.

"What, darling?" Julie didn't seem too interested, didn't even look up from the paper. All four of her children were prone to a bit of melodrama, but in Ella it was especially apparent.

"I was _mugged_ on another _planet_ 3000 years in the _future_!"

Ella was standing in front of her mother now, hands on hips, demanding attention.

Julie looked up, a little startled that there was good reason for the drama.

"Ella! Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. Just _really_ pissed off." She flung herself into a chair in her best Kevinish manner, as if to endorse this statement.

"Oh, Doctor! Thank you so much for looking after her," Julie held out a hand to him. The Doctor opened his mouth to explain and shot Ella an anxious glance.

"Actually, Julie – "

"He didn't look after me!" Ella burst out before he could speak. "Too busy chatting to that bloke about stupid clockwork mice!"

The Doctor thought about pointing out that clockwork mice were far from stupid, especially ones from the year 5312, and actually a clockwork mouse had saved his life once, but one look at Ella's face made him change his mind. Since the first time he met Donna, the Doctor had learnt a lot about self-preservation.

"I had to _punch _an alien!"

"You hit him?" Julie looked a little scandalized.

"Of course I hit him – he was trying to nick my iPod!"

"She's very defensive," the Doctor commented, going to inspect a rather complicated looking corkscrew the Marlowes had acquired since the last time he had visited. "Like a nesting mother," he added, pleased with the analogy.

"I like my iPod," Ella protested. "And it _hurt_."

The Doctor sent her a faintly mocking look as she strived to keep her sulking pout in place. He turned from her to Julie.

"Can I put the kettle on?"

"Of course, sweetheart," Julie stood to go and help him and Ella brooded a bit more, until her younger brother walked into the room. She visibly brightened, perceiving a new audience.

"James! I was mugged!" she announced impressively.

"Oh, it's going to be one of _those_ stories," the Doctor murmured in her ear before setting a cup of coffee in front of her. She frowned him down.

"Why were you mugged?" James sounded bemused, as if nothing his sister carried could be of any interest to anyone.

"Well, I was walking down this street on Oxis Ergo, about 3000 years in the future, minding my own business – "

Julie tutted at her but allowed the heavily embellished tale to continue.

By the time Ella came to tell her father a couple of hours later, her story had become a full twenty minute long saga, featuring her as the swashbuckling heroine and the Doctor as her barely mentioned sidekick.

He rolled his eyes at her but couldn't help grinning, he rather liked her embellished version of events – which didn't mean he was going to start wearing a cape, or putting his underwear on over the top of his tights, or putting on tights full stop, or saying things like 'Holy Mackerel Ella-girl!'. Definitely not.

**A/N: 'Kevinish' as in Harry Enfield's Kevin the teenager, if you didn't know.**

**Give us a review, there's a love.**


	31. Chapter 31

**A/N: With many thanks to the lovely GamineMadcap whose idea this was – it was so perfect I wrote it straight away! **

**If anyone else has any ideas, anything they want to read about, anything they want explored just let me know! Always looking for inspiration!**

**I don't own Doctor Who.**

_In Which Ella is annoyed and the Doctor is a muppet_

17th May

"So, then, when Justin is chasing them all the way through France, Leonie catches up with them in Dijon, well, she and Rupert do. Mary's escaped upstairs – Dominic did just almost stab her so she's feeling a bit shaky – " Ella paused to open the TARDIS door and backed out of it, still explaining to the Doctor who was frowning in concentration, trying to make sense of this convoluted tale. "But, on the way, she hears Rupert making stupid comments as he does and Leonie trying to make Dominic promise he won't marry Mary. She tries to do this self-sacrifice thing and runs away from the inn and, in Pont-de-Moine – "

"Wait, did she walk?"

"No, got on the stage coach. But, she didn't have much money so she could only get to Pont-de-Moine. Anyway she goes to this inn there and, quelle horreur, there's Justin! She doesn't know who he is but – hang on, we're home." Ella had eventually turned around and discovered that they were standing outside her house.

"Yeah," the Doctor, remarked trying to not look pleased with himself.

"Why?" Ella didn't seem particularly impressed.

"Well, we haven't been back for a while, and, you know, I thought we should visit, have a catch up – "

"You wanted biscuits didn't you." She accused him.

"No! Well, a few wouldn't hurt, but – "

She laughed at him and meandered off towards the front door. Smiling slightly and with an anticipating gleam in his eye, the Doctor followed. Ella rang the bell and stood with her hands in her pockets, waiting for someone to come and answer it.

It swung open suddenly and Ella's smile faded to a look of puzzlement. It wasn't exactly who she had been expecting.

"Jack!" the Doctor exclaimed, an admonishing note in his voice.

"Sorry," Captain Harkness replied, looking a little sheepish.

"Please, tell me you're not trying to move in with my parents," Ella groaned.

"They haven't offered yet, but it'll only be a matter of time!" He announced confidently. Ella smiled despite herself and went to hug him.

"I've missed you," she told him; he squeezed her a little tighter.

"Missed you too." He told her, slightly gruffly.

They finally pulled apart and Ella moved past him, into the house. The Doctor followed her, frowning heavily at Jack.

"Why did you open the door?" he hissed.

"I sort of forgot," Jack smiled at him apologetically and hurried after Ella.

She glanced behind her as she pushed open the door to the kitchen, trying to keep an eye on the pair of them.

"SURPRISE!"

Ella jumped and swung around to face the room. It was filled with many familiar faces. Her mother was chatting to Donna in the corner. Martha was leaning against the counter, Dr Tom standing at her side. Both her brothers and her sister were sitting at the kitchen table, clearly having recently finished a vociferous game of uno, there were cards everywhere. Her father was talking to her grandparents, and all of them were staring at her expectantly.

"Um – what?" she managed, hoping she didn't look quite as much like a confused lemming as she felt.

"Darling!" Julie hurried up to her and gave her a hug.

"Hi Mum," Ella managed, hugging her back. Jack moved around them and went to join Donna. The Doctor stood just behind Ella's shoulder, enjoying the scene. Ella went to hug her Dad as well and then, still looking confused, considered the rest of the room.

"Er – what's going on?" she managed eventually, trying to ignore the fear that had a hold of the pit of her stomach. Everyone was smiling, god James was laughing; there wasn't anything wrong, she was sure of it. But would be happier if someone could just explain.

"What do you think?" James asked in his best 'duh' voice.

"I dunno, that's why I asked!" Ella replied in a similar tone, he could always aggravate her even when he was barely trying.

"James!" Julie admonished sharply. "Ella, everyone's here for you," Her daughter still looked blank. "It's your birthday, darling."

Ella nodded slowly. Yeah, she should have remembered that.

"Oh, right." Things were clicking into place a bit more now. "Well." She tried to smile. "That's – great."

Though she sounded decidedly unenthusiastic it appeared that this was all the encouragement that was needed for everyone to converge on her. Her grandparents hugged and kissed her, she got a couple of bumps from her brothers and a hug from her sister. Jack went in for another hug. Donna held her for a long time and Martha appeared slightly overexcited. Tom kissed her on the cheek and murmured 'Happy Birthday'.

"Thanks," Ella said quietly, smiling at them all. Then her gaze fell on the Doctor. He was trying to suppress a smug, proud little grin.

"You - I don't believe you," Ella told him, going to stand in front of him and getting ready to do a bit of finger pointing if it might help.

"I know!" he said, letting his smile light up his face.

"You – you _knew_ about all this, didn't you?"

Jack took a swift step back from them.

"Yep." The Doctor replied gleefully.

"You brought us here on purpose?"

Donna exchanged a look with Martha.

"Yep." He said again.

"And you didn't _tell_ me!"

"Nope – it was a surprise!" He was still looking pleased with himself but Dominic had retreated to the other side of the table, having had experience of his sister's wrath.

"You complete and utter – " He nodded at her encouragingly. "Prawn head!"

His face fell comically.

"What?"

"What did you go and do that for?"

"Because – well – because – "

"God, Doctor!"

Seemingly being unable to find the words, Ella swung out and hit him on the arm.

"Ow!" he protested. "It wasn't even my idea!" The phrase digging yourself into a hole sprang to mind.

"You idiot!"

He stared at her, mouth opening and shutting as he failed to comprehend what the problem was.

"Ella, come on, he was just trying to help," Julie judged it time to intervene. She came up and took her daughter by the shoulders. "Look I made you a cake, and perhaps you'd like to open some presents?"

Ella sent the Doctor a fulminating look but allowed herself to be lead away. Donna came to stand with him.

"Taureans." She remarked sagely. He threw her an impatient look but was soon placated when Lily offered him a slice of cake and a cup of tea.

Despite a slightly fractious beginning, the afternoon was a success. Ella was happy to be surrounded by her family, and her odd extended family as well, and she even got presents.

A couple of hours after they had arrived and after waving her grandparents off, Ella sidled up to the Doctor holding an olive branch in the form of a piece of cake. He took it, smiling happily and digging in quickly.

"Sorry," she said quietly, looking up at him speculatively through her lashes.

"S'alright," he replied thickly, through a mouthful of cake.

She laughed and reached up to wipe a bit of icing from his chin.

"And thank you."

He merely smiled exuberantly down at her, clearly still proud of his scheming. It had been Julie's idea but he had had to avoid mentioning it at all and he'd found it very difficult.

Ella smiled back and leaned against him, wrapping her arms around his waist. He dispensed with the now empty plate and hugged her round her shoulders.

"Stupid alien," she said quietly. He chuckled a little and she could feel it in his chest against her ear. He bent his head and placed a kiss in her hair.

"Happy Birthday, Cinderella." He said softly, she smiled against his shirt. It had definitely been a birthday to remember.

**A/N: The story Ella is explaining to the Doctor at the beginning is Georgette Heyer's The Devil's Cub – I don't know why she is really she just is, it is a bit of a complicated story…**

**Thanks for reading and please review! x**


	32. Chapter 32

**A/N: No idea where this came from... Enjoy it anyway! I don't own Doctor Who.**

Musicality

Really, the Doctor had to idea why he kept coming back to New Earth, specifically New New York. It never ever went well. What with possessive trampolines and the universe's worst traffic jams, it wasn't exactly a holiday hotspot. Yet, here he was again – and, quelle surprise, he was in trouble once more.

They'd been having a lovely time, strolling around and having a go on the public transport that had been set up when the motorway was put out of action. The Doctor had suggested they go and visit the Senate, just to check they weren't doing anything stupid, and Ella had happily agreed. She would have agreed happily to anything at this point, he had bought her just about the most delicious ice cream she had ever tasted and there were three scoops. She didn't care where they ended up as long as she could continue to eat it.

Their plans began to go down hill when the Doctor decided to take a short cut. Five minutes after he ducked down an alley that ended in a long flight of steps to the beginnings of downtown New New York (which was _literally_ down, underneath the upper city), it was suddenly brought upon Ella that she should have been paying attention to where they were going.

Quite apart from getting them lost, not that he'd admit that, the Doctor had also managed to discover and disturb a hairy, drooling, toothy beast. It announced itself with a snarl as it pounced out behind them and they both whirled round, Ella squeaking a little when she came face to face with it.

They both stood stock still, eyeing it warily, the Doctor holding out his arms as if that would protect Ella.

"What is it?" she whispered to him, clutching onto his outstretched arm.

"Um – don't know." He confessed, still staring at the beast. She turned to look at him, horrified.

"You _don't know_!" she exclaimed.

"Er, no."

"So – what do we do?" Ella turned back to the thing; it had taken a step closer.

"Run."

He turned, removing her clutch on his arm and taking her hand instead, pulling her up the dark alley. Behind them as they sprinted through the twisted, littered streets they could hear the beast blundering along, obviously not ready to give up yet.

"My ice cream!" Ella wailed as it fell from her grasp to splatter on the floor.

"I'll get you another one!" the Doctor shouted. "Now, shift!"

Ella picked up the pace a bit and swung around a corner.

At the sight of an old fashioned looking fire escape, one of those iron ones with the ladder at the bottom and steps up to the top, the Doctor pulled Ella to the side, yanking down the ladder and forcing her up it. She reached the first landing in a heap but picked herself up and began to run up the stairs, the Doctor close behind her.

Ella kept her eyes trained ahead of her, not willing to risk looking back to see the beast or down to be attacked by vertigo. When they were about half way up the building, the Doctor called a halt by a door in the wall. Taking out his sonic screwdriver he set to work, it was unlocked in seconds and they both hurried inside, slamming the door and locking it again behind them.

They stood there, breathing heavily, leaning against the door.

"Think we lost it," the Doctor said after a minute.

"Yeah," Ella agreed. She gave a shaky laugh. "Woah, that was scary!"

The Doctor turned and grinned at her, she smiled back. He stepped away from the door and pulled her into a hug, she clung on tightly. After a moment he pulled back so he could look at her face, still holding her in his arms.

"Alright?" he asked seriously, eyes searching her face for any sign of a problem.

"Alright." She replied, smiling more softly. He gave one nod and released her, turning to the corridor they had ended up in.

"Looks like we've got back to the upper city," he said, observing the rich decoration.

Ella looked around as well and was about to open her mouth to say something when a company of guards came around the corner. The two groups stood staring at each other for a minute before one of the guards reacted, a guard that looked suspiciously like a cat, which slowed Ella's reactions.

"Intruders! Floor 21. Request immediate back up!" he shouted into his shoulder radio while the other guards raised their weapons and advanced on the pair.

"Run!" the Doctor yelled and they turned and began to sprint again.

This dash for freedom involved an overly large amount of staircases and ended in them crashing through a paper display, ripping it from floor to ceiling. They fell to the floor in a mess of purple paper, each too tangled to immediately get to their feet and start running again. Also, they had both erupted into hysterical laughter so there was really no chance of them getting anywhere. The Doctor managed to struggle through the paper separating them to check on Ella, but the sight of her cocooned in the destroyed display with tears of mirth running down her face set him off laughing again.

"Ahem." Came a clear, disapproving voice and their giggles immediately ceased. The Doctor looked up and Ella rolled over onto her stomach to see who had been trying to get their attention.

It was a bit of a shock to see a full orchestra and choir with accompanying conductors sitting watching them with shocked expressions.

"Oh – hello," the Doctor managed. He got to his feet and pulled Ella up beside him. The other two hundred plus people in the room were still staring at him. "Sorry about the mess," he apologized, gesturing vaguely to the empty space that used to hold a paper display.

Ella nudged his side and he looked down to see her grinning gleefully.

"Star Wars quote!" she told him and he frowned at her, shaking his head in exasperation. "Not the time?" she asked.

"No." he confirmed, turning to look back at the conductor.

"Who are you?" the short cat-man, who was holding the conductor's baton for the orchestra, demanded.

"I'm the Doctor and this is Ella," He walked forward, out of the ripped paper and towards the nearest music stand to see what they were playing. "Did we interrupt the rehearsal?"

"Yes! You did! We are practicing for a _very_ important event that cannot be disclosed and _you_ are trespassing!" the conductor declared.

Ella had been watching him curiously, having never seen a cat that effectively had a human body, but at this she suddenly remembered why they had crashed through the display in the first place.

"Actually, we're supposed to be here," she told him, smiling widely and trying to look as if she knew exactly what was going on.

"Indeed?" The cat conductor didn't seem to believe her. Ella widened her eyes at the Doctor, inviting him to think of something to say.

"Er, yes, yes we are. We're a bit late actually, really sorry about that," he paused and in the silence the sound of the booted guards could be heard coming closer. "Yes, we're late," the Doctor continued hurriedly. "We're supposed to be in the orchestra."

Ella nodded to the conductor, corroborating the statement.

"I don't see your instruments, what do you play?"

"Er – air guitar." The Doctor said quickly, nodding.

"Oh, I was going to play air guitar!" Ella exclaimed.

"You can play the pennywhistle." He said, turning to look at her.

"I'm _not _playing the pennywhistle! I'll play air drums," Ella turned back to the conductor in triumph.

"We already have a drummer," he told her, indicating a man sitting at the back with an impressive array of drums in front of him.

"Really?" Ella whined, disappointed. "Oh, I know, I'll play the tambourine!"

"But, where is your instrument?" The conductor was still frowning at her disapprovingly.

"Left it on a bus."

One of the other members of the orchestra stepped forward.

"I've got a spare tambourine," she said, holding a star shaped one out.

Ella raised her eyebrows at her, wondering what sort person actually carried a spare tambourine around with them, but she wasn't going to complain.

"Brilliant." She said and went to take the instrument.

"Right then, places everyone, please!" the conductor appeared to have resigned himself to his too new members. "We will start at the beginning."

"Hang on, what are we playing?" Ella called down to him.

" 'I Can't Get No Satisfaction' " he replied. "An old Earth classic by The Rolling Stones. Now - one, two, three, four."

And the entire burst into the opening bars of the Stones' 'Satisfaction'. Ella looked down the row of musicians and met the Doctor's eye, turning quickly away from each other to avoid laughing, they concentrated on what they were supposed to be doing, broad grins on their faces.

When the guards made it into the rehearsal room, they found the performers in full swing, the choir belting out the lyrics and the air guitarists giving it their all. It didn't occur to them to look amongst the orchestra for their quarry. The guards turned and left.

**A/N: There - hope you liked it! **

**I thought you would like to know - next week I am going to see Hamlet staring Mr Tennant himself - am so overexcited you would not flipping believe it! He's going to be RIGHT THERE! We're sitting in the second row as well - will be AWESOME.**

**Anyway - please review, that would be fantastic! xx**


	33. Chapter 33

**A/N:**** Random – as usual.**

**I don't own Doctor Who.**

Just Say No

"You're kidding, who's stupid idea was that?"

"It's not stupid! Here, try one, go on!"

He held the plastic cup out to her. She took it but eyed the straw poking out of the lid with deep suspicion. The Doctor picked his own drink up from the counter and flung what looked like buttons but were probably currency, hopefully currency, down in it's place.

They started to walk off down the street, the Doctor taking an enthusiastic slurp of his drink and looking around at the shops, Ella still looking at the straw as if it may well attack her.

"Eggnog though."

The Doctor cast her an impatient look.

"Just try it, you might like it."

"But _eggnog_." Ella had a bad habit of repeating herself. "I mean eggnog normally is bad enough, but this is eggnog _milkshake_! That's got to be even more disgusting."

"Have you even tried eggnog before?" he turned round to look at her, pinning her with his gaze.

"No," she admitted reluctantly. This was going to get her in trouble, she knew it.

"Well, how do you know you don't like it then?"

"The whole idea of it! It's just – wrong. And then to go and make it into a milkshake!"

"Just try it, once. You can't say you don't like it if you've never tried it."

That had always been a maxim with her family, and he knew it the crafty alien.

Every time she hadn't wanted to not eating something, if she said she didn't like it, she had been asked if she'd tried it before. If the answer was no she was persuaded into trying whatever it was. It had ended in her eating oysters, which were basically like swallowing a mouthful of seawater, boulout, essentially sea snails, sushi, which she had just known she would hate, and absinthe. Though that hadn't been too bad actually and her protests had been mere show.

She glared at the Doctor before taking a deep breath and, holding her nose, she inhaled some of the yellow, frothy mixture the cup held. She was silent for a few moments as she fought to swallow and came up gasping.

"There!" she declared, holding the cup out to him. "I've tried it. Now I can officially say I _hate_ eggnog – it's disgusting and wrong."

The Doctor took the cup grinning.

"Now, don't you feel better?" he asked happily.

"No. I actually feel really sick."

"Oh," he looked down at her with concern. "Well, try not to think about it." Oh, brilliant advice that. "We'll find you something else to eat. What about – " he paused and looked around him. "Oh, brussel sprouts!"

He began to stride off in the direction of those vile vegetables but Ella grabbed onto the back of his coat.

"No." she said firmly. "If you want to live and for me to ever speak to you again, you will not take one step further. I've tried them and I hate them."

"Aw, really?" he actually sounded disappointed, as if he liked those stupid mini cabbage things that tasted vile enough to make you gag.

"Yes, really. I'm not eating one."

"Fine – what about – "

"Strawberries!" Ella interrupted him excitedly. She left his side immediately, heading off towards a stand filled with juicy red fruit.

He began after her before realizing his hands were full; he looked down with surprise to find he was holding both of the cups. Casting about, he found a flat surface, deposited his burdens, and hurried off after his wayward companion.

On reaching the stall it was clear she had already been indulging. There was juice on her fingers and her lips were more red than normal.

"Good?" he asked, casting a smile to the vendor.

"Oh, yes," she replied, not even glancing at him.

He regarded her in silence for a moment. "I should probably mention, they're not actually strawberries."

Ella froze, half eaten fruit still in her mouth. "Wha'?" she tried to ask around it.

"They're sort of like strawberries but from the planet Eidola. They're a delicacy and hideously expensive. Very good for you though, all anti-oxidants and endorphins and serotonin and, most importantly, potassium.

Ella swallowed carefully.

"So, I can eat them then?"

"Yeah, not too many though 'cause I'm not made of money. They should make you feel happy!"

"Well," she said cautiously. "I don't feel sick anymore."

"Good – does that mean we can go and try the chocolate now?"

"They have chocolate? You could have said before! Where?"

"This way, milady." He offered her his arm and they strolled off into the crowd.

**A/N:**** Hope you liked it, just a little bit of silliness. Please review for me! **


	34. Chapter 34

Here We Go Again

Ella walked quietly into the control room. She had to do this carefully. There was only a very slim chance that she was going to be successful in her mission.

Casting around she discovered the ship's owner underneath the metal grille, only half his legs visible. She walked forwarded and leaned against the console so she was looking down on his feet.

"Doctor?" she asked slowly, drawing out the last letter as if it would make her more persuasive.

"What?" he asked, still hidden.

She frowned and went to stand in front of the hole he'd opened up, trying to see his face. All she could see was his blue shirt disappearing into the darkness.

"Doctor?" she asked again, reaching down to poke his leg and gain his proper attention.

"What?" he demanded, he was paying attention, really he was, he just had to concentrate on this bit of wiring.

Ella tugged on his trouser leg, refusing to elaborate before he gave her his whole consideration.

The Doctor sighed, dropped the spanner he was holding and struggled out so he could look at her. He propped himself up on his elbows and raised his eyebrows.

"Doctor," Ella said once more, a small smile on her lips.

He caught sight of her expression, completely with wide eyes and tilted head, and made an effort to get back underneath the console. He really didn't want to get persuaded into whatever the latest thing she'd dreamt up was. Unfortunately he hadn't figured the fact that she was still holding onto the trouser leg of his suit into his calculations: he wasn't going anywhere.

"Yes?" he asked anxiously.

"I was just wondering," the more slowly Ella spoke the more likely it was she was trying to persuade him to do something he wouldn't want to do. "If maybe you might want to watch a film?"

"I'm sort of in the middle of something." He said quickly, hoping to fend her off. Watching a film didn't sound too bad but there was bound to be a catch.

"You can do that anytime," Ella protested, pouting down at him. "Anyway, Mr. Darcy singing, I mean come on! We've got to see it!"

"How do you know about the musical Pride and Prejudice?" he asked, surprised.

Ella did a double take. "Seriously?"

"Um, no." He tried to distract her from his pathetic cover up. "What film did you want to see?"

"I was thinking, maybe…Mamma Mia?" she smiled hopefully.

"Don't have it." He replied immediately, trying to duck away from her again.

"I_ know_," Honestly, she knew his DVD collection better than he did himself. "I meant going to the cinema. You know, popcorn and all that jazz."

"Oh, do we have to? There'll be all those other _people_." He sounded a bit disgusted by the idea.

"Please, please, please! It'll be fun, honest it will." She was still turning the full force of her expression on him.

"Ugh, _fine_!" He said, caving in with a bad grace.

Ella squealed and helped pull him to his feet, before hugging him. He submitted to the embrace but when he turned to the console to set the co-ordinates for some cinema in England, he could be heard to mutter that as a Time Lord of mature years he should be past being persuaded by wide eyes, fluttering lashes and pouting lips.

After landing, Ella danced happily into the cinema, buying them tickets and popcorn before going in to see the movie.

108 minutes later the pair of them emerged, blinking at the sudden sunlight. The Doctor was looking mildly amused, hands in his pockets; Ella was looking shell-shocked.

"Did you see that?" she asked.

"Yeah." He replied, sending her a look.

"But he was – I mean – the – did you _see_ that?!" She seemed to be having a bit of trouble forming sentences.

The Doctor only nodded this time, looking ahead to where the TARDIS stood. There was silence between them until they were safely inside, the doors shut tight behind them.

Ella walked shakily over to the chair and sat down heavily, staring in front of her. The Doctor glanced at her before going to the controls to take them away from Earth.

After a few more minutes of silence Ella finally spoke up.

"I'm scarred for life." She declared.

"Are you?" he enquired conversationally.

"Yes. I – " she broke off to shudder. "It was _skin tight _Doctor. And there were platforms." He nodded sympathetically but she appeared not to notice. "Colin Firth was wearing a skin tight, sparkly, blue, _sequined_ cat suit. It was – " she broke off again, seemingly unable to finish the sentence.

The Doctor walked forward to lay a hand on her shoulder.

"I know." He said. Ella looked up at him with wide eyes, before returning his smile. "Come on then, Dancing Queen," he continued. "Where to next?"

**A/N:**** I actually enjoyed watching Mamma Mia, it's fun, but that last bit with the three men in the cat suits was just……well. To be honest I think Colin pulled it off the best – yay Colin! And it did make me laugh.**


	35. Chapter 35

_**+IMPORTANT+**_** Me and Firebreathing Fishies have co-written a story that features her OC Ashley Chambers and my Ella. It is called **_**Summer of 64**_** and in the account haveabanana - there's a link on my profile! Check it out it was huge amounts of fun to write.**

**A/N: I heard this lyric and had to use it – it was too perfect!**

'I said oh no, oh please just go 

You got no eyelids and sweet Ella loves me so'

_Baby Fratelli - The Fratellis_

"Oh. You know, I'd really rather you didn't – "

The Doctor broke off abruptly to return the tentacle like arms to the side of the alien in front of him. Unfortunately she had four arms, so while he was dealing with one pair her other was snaking up his back and into his hair.

"Now, Doctor, you never told me why you were here."

She was trying to distract him with words; he knew that and wasn't having any of it. He removed her second pair of wandering hands.

"Oh, well, you know passing through. Actually, my companion's round here somewhere so really I should just go look for her." He gestured helplessly over his shoulder.

"No Doctor. She will be fine." The woman spoke with cool authority. "You will stay here with me."

The Doctor looked frantically into the wide, unusually shaped eyes that were inches from his own. If he was honest, he didn't stand much of a chance. She had four arms and these ruling empresses generally got their own way.

Sighing he looked around the room for inspiration. It was crowded with various political dignitaries of the planet Siaparelli, drinking and talking shop whilst careful to leave a wide birth around him and the planet's ruler.

Ella was nowhere to be seen.

"I was _rather_ hoping to see the infamous Siaparelli stone," he improvised. "Don't suppose there's any chance I could get a look?"

The Empress of Siaparelli held up a warning finger. It was translucent and blue and tentacly. The Doctor fought not recoil before it.

"Now now, Doctor. You know there must be no talk of business between us."

"Really?" The pitch of his voice skipped up a couple of notches as her hand reached out to his chest again. "Oh right. Well, what do you want to talk about? Um, I saw a great meteor shower the other day, over the planet of Lazaga – it was beautiful. The sky lit up and - Ameera!"

The Empress merely smiled up at him, a naughty twinkle in those huge eyes that belied her dignified role.

"Yes, Doctor?" she asked. If she had had eyebrows she would have raised them.

A discreet cough sounded behind them. The Doctor spun round in relief but Ameera narrowed her eyes in annoyance.

"If you'll excuse me, your highness, I am afraid I have someone here whose looking for the Doctor."

The aide stepped to one side and Ella was revealed. The Doctor smiled at in relief but she only raised an eyebrow in return.

"Thank you, George," she said, tapping the aide who had announced her on the chest. "You did a fine job. I just wanted to say Doctor, I'm a bit knackered so I thought I'd head home, but if you want to stay a bit longer – "

She trailed off, smirking at his sudden stricken expression.

"No! No, it's fine! I'll come with you." He darted away from the Empress and to his companion's side.

Ameera's eyes had shrunk to slits.

"Who might you be?" she asked, looking at Ella as she would a cockroach. Or whatever was the equivalent to a cockroach on this planet.

"I'm Ella. But that doesn't matter, thing is I've got to get this one home. He's not really allowed to stay up after nine – gets overexcited." Ella linked her arm through the Doctor's, ignoring his indignant expression. "It's been a wonderful party, your worshipfulness, hope to see you again some time."

With these words and a wink, she turned from the presence of the wrathful ruler and began to lead the Doctor out of the room, not that he needed a lot of encouragement. The other guests all looked at them with surprise or disapproval and, learning from past experience, the pair were very careful to keep smiles on their faces.

"Thank you." The Doctor muttered through his grinning teeth.

"Don't mention it." Ella replied, smiling and nodding at the crowd around her.

As soon as they made it through the doors and to the freedom outside, they broke into a wild, dashing sprint, linked by their clasped hands.

**A/N:**** Awkward Doctor is awkward. Poor love. Please review and check out that story! x**


	36. Chapter 36

**A/N:**** Ok, the next few oneshots are all based on one quote – it's really long though so I've sort of broken it up a bit. Hope you like – I'll put the whole quote in below and then the bit that this chapter is on!**

**Oh yeah, this is especially for ScreamsOnScreen who is an awesome reviewer and feels the need for a bit fluff... x**

"_Find a guy who calls you beautiful instead of hot, who calls you back when you hang up on him, who will lie under the stars and listen to your heart beat, or will stay awake just to watch you sleep…wait for the boy who kisses your forehead, who wants to show off to the world when you're wearing sweatpants, who holds your hand in front of his friends, who thinks you're just as pretty without make up on. One who is constantly reminding you of how much he cares and how lucky he is to have you…The one who turns to his friends and says, 'That's her'."_

"Find a guy who calls you beautiful instead of hot"

" 'Scuse me, hot stuff, can I just get past?"

Ella moved back slightly to let the mechanic reach past her. He picked up the part he needed and moved back to the ship he was working on.

"Thanks, babe."

Ella scowled at him. Absolute strangers calling her 'babe' was something she really hated, always had done. 'Love' was bad enough and 'darlin' was infuriating, but 'babe' totally did her head in.

No girl would walk up to a bloke on another planet and start calling him 'babe' so why did they seem to think it would work the other way round?

In other circumstances she might have started questioning the annoying grease monkey on this subject but as it was they were on a mission and the Doctor was talking so the chance of her getting a word in edgeways was _very_ slim.

"So, what do you think? How long would it take to get a pananin modulator?"

The Doctor looked only vaguely anxious, his gaze was wandering admiringly over the technology displayed in this intergalactic garage. Ella was about more concerned about getting off this rock at some point in the future.

The mechanic breathed in through his teeth.

"Well, takes a while to be delivered, and then we're rushed off our feet – be a few weeks till we can fit it."

"A few weeks!" Ella exclaimed, annoyed. The other two ignored her.

"I don't need it fitted, I just need the part." The Doctor explained, fumbling in his pockets. "And if it could also reverse the adverse effects of the vortex on my hot water system at the same time, that would be fantastic."

He sent the mechanic a beaming look, the other man merely looked puzzled.

"Doctor, we just want the part that will fly the thing, ok? The hot water's fine." Ella turned to the mechanic with expectantly raised eyebrows. "So how long till the part is delivered?"

"Um," he scratched the back of his neck. "In that case, one maybe two days."

"Brilliant." Ella declared. "Doctor, pay the man."

She really wanted to just get this over and done with and go home.

"Right," the Doctor finally withdrew his hand from his pocket and displayed the clear plastic discs that stood for currency on this planet. "This should cover it."

The mechanic looked down into his hand, back at his face and then down at his hand again. Before bursting out laughing. The Doctor looked offended.

"What?" he demanded, also looking down into his hand.

"Ah, mate, I thought you seriously wanted the part." The mechanic gasped out through his guffaws.

"I do!" the Doctor protested.

"Well, get a job then. That lot wouldn't buy you a cup of tea."

Ella stared at the mechanic for a moment, taking in what he had said, before turning a furious look on the Doctor and planting her hands on her hips. He looked deflated.

"Oh. Right." He closed his hand and put the money back in his pocket. "Post inflation, is it?" he remarked conversationally.

Five minutes later they were walking away from the garage. The Doctor had his hands in his pockets and appeared to be doing some not too strenuous thinking, any minute now he'd probably start whistling. Ella was trudging along by his side, fuming silently. This didn't last long.

"Four!" she exclaimed suddenly and the Doctor jumped slightly before turning to look at her. "We have been to _four_ garages looking for that stupid part and when we do finally find it _you_ – " she poked him in the chest. " – don't have any money! I have been called 'love' and 'darlin' and 'sweetheart' and '_babe_' – " she pronounced the word with loathing. " – all morning and we have got nothing to show for it! Except for the fact that I am now covered in grease!"

She opened her arms to show him her clothes, which were indeed smeared with almost irremovable grease. She had a smudge on her cheek as well. Despite the force of her tirade the Doctor smiled at her, just a little. Reaching out a hand he tried to rub the grease from her face with his thumb. It had little to no effect, but he did try. Ella appeared a little mollified.

"Sorry," he apologized simply. "We'll go and get some money and then go back, won't take long I promise." She nodded but didn't look particularly cheerful. "Anyway, despite the grease, I think you look beautiful."

She turned to look at him in surprise, eyes widening, but he wasn't looking at her anymore. Instead, he was staring ahead trying to work out where they could get some money. Ella gave a small grin and walked forward to take his hand. He glanced down at her and they shared a look before walking towards the nearest town where the Doctor could charm some unsuspecting person out of their hard earned cash.

**A/N:**** Hope you enjoyed it!**

**If you would like to read another story with Ella in check out ****Summer of 64**** – co-written with Firebreathing Fishies it's a crossover with both our OCs. Link on my profile to ****haveabanana**

**Please review!**


	37. Chapter 37

**A/N:**** The next bit of the quote!**

"_Find a guy who calls you beautiful instead of hot, who calls you back when you hang up on him, who will lie under the stars and listen to your heart beat, or will stay awake just to watch you sleep…wait for the boy who kisses your forehead, who wants to show off to the world when you're wearing sweatpants, who holds your hand in front of his friends, who thinks you're just as pretty without make up on. One who is constantly reminding you of how much he cares and how lucky he is to have you…The one who turns to his friends and says, 'That's her'."_

"Who calls you back when you hang up on him"

Ella's phone rang out. Without looking at the screen, she picked it up from where it was vibrating violently along the kitchen table and answered it.

"No." she said into the mouthpiece before allowing the caller to say a word.

"Oh, _Ella_!" the Doctor whined on the other end. "You've been _ages_."

"It's been about an hour."

"That's ages! I've had nothing to do, it's really boring."

"I thought you only didn't like Sundays." Ella commented, hoping to distract him while she reached over to take a biscuit from the pack her friend Jess was holding out to her.

"I've changed my mind. I hate Thursdays too." He paused a moment, considering the problem. "Maybe its something to do with it nearly being the end of the week but not a good day like Friday or Saturday just sort of in between and – hang on, are you eating?"

Ella stopped mid-chew and mumbled through her mouthful of biscuit. "No."

"You are!" he declared triumphantly. "What is it?"

"Um – chocolate finger."

"That's it – I'm coming round! Where are you?"

"Doctor, you are not coming round!" Ella tried to ignore the enthusiastic and encouraging nods Jess and Sophy were sending her.

"But I _want_ to!" he whined.

"Yet you're still not going to." Ella was grinning now, it felt quite nice to be the one with the power.

"Tell me where you are though!"

"Nope. Going now."

And with the words she hung up.

"He could have come round." Jess said. It was her kitchen they were sitting in.

"Um, do you want him to destroy everything?"

"Oh, come on! He's fun." Sophy cried, sending Ella a smile. Ella frowned back.

"You _must_ think so," Jess protested, leaning in to look her in the eye. "You're the one who's stayed with him this long."

"Hmm." Was all Ella said and tried to think of something that would change the subject. Before she could, however, her phone rang again. Despite the fact she was trying to be annoyed with him she couldn't help a small smile flickering on her face. She liked that he called her back.

Ella answered the call.

"Is that you John Wayne?"

"You know, I didn't really like John Wayne that much," the Doctor replied casually. "Clint Eastwood is a much nicer bloke, has better lines as well."

"Yeah me too," Ella agreed, leaning back in her chair. "He was a bit of chauvinist prick – John I mean."

"I think you've been spending too much time with those girly mates of yours," the Doctor commented in an amused tone. "They've turned you all feminist."

"Yeah, next thing you know I'll want to get a job and vote and everything."

"Can't have that – need someone to cook my meals for me."

"So – you coming to get me then?" Despite her earlier protests, Ella was ready to go. Catching up was fun but this wasn't her life anymore and she wanted to get back to it.

"Yup."

"I'm at Jess'."

"I know. I'm outside."

Ella got quickly to her feet and went to look out of the window. Standing on the drive, leaning against that incongruous blue box, stood the Doctor looking incredibly pleased with himself.

"Cheeky bastard." Ella breathed. He grinned back at her and they both hung up.

Ella said goodbye to Jess and Sophy, persuading them that they didn't need to come out to see her off. This was no time to explain the TARDIS and they only wanted to chat with the Doctor anyway. If they were going to leave she didn't want to drag it out.

Skipping lightly down the steps, she joined the Doctor.

"Okey doke?" he asked.

"Yep, off we go."

He opened the door and let her past, following swiftly in her wake. The TARDS's engines sounded and the blue box disappeared.

They were off once more.

**A/N:**** hope you enjoyed it – give me a review, there's a love.**


	38. Chapter 38

**A/N:**** Part 3! Hope you like it.**

"_Find a guy who calls you beautiful instead of hot, who calls you back when you hang up on him, who will lie under the stars and listen to your heart beat, or will stay awake just to watch you sleep…wait for the boy who kisses your forehead, who wants to show off to the world when you're wearing sweatpants, who holds your hand in front of his friends, who thinks you're just as pretty without make up on. One who is constantly reminding you of how much he cares and how lucky he is to have you…The one who turns to his friends and says, 'That's her'."_

"Who will lie under the stars and listen to your heart beat."

"You know, it's strange."

The Doctor's voice broke the still night air. Ella didn't turn her head to look at him.

They were lying on grass that was only slightly damp, staring up at the velvet black sky above them. The Doctor had been sure that a shooting star was supposed to pass over this night and Ella had wanted to see it. That had been an hour ago and they'd been lying in silence ever since.

Comfortable, complete silence.

The Doctor had his hands behind his head and Ella's were lying on her stomach, their legs splayed out before them. They breathed softly and no sound broke the quiet of the night.

Ella didn't know where they were but it didn't really matter. The planet was deserted and beautiful, and despite how long she had traveled with the Doctor she had never seen a shooting star and it had always been an ambition of hers.

It had been nice to spend a bit of time doing nothing. No running, or negotiating for their lives, or trying to help people. No thinking and no talking.

Ella didn't feel the need to fill the space between them with constant chatter. At first there had been moments when she'd felt uneasy and had made up for it by blabbering on about anything she could think of. And the Doctor had as well, still did sometimes. But now, she felt comfortable in their silences. Felt that she understood him enough to let quiet fall between them and not break it.

You could never really tell with the Doctor, but Ella thought that he felt the same way. There had been a distinct lack of babbling rambles from him when it was just the two of them in any case. Him breaking the silence now was simply because of who he was. It had been an hour and she was surprised he hadn't blurted out the hundred other things that had occurred to him during that time.

"What's strange?" she asked quietly, still gazing up at the sky.

"Well, I've got two hearts that are beating all the time, well pretty much all the time, and you've only got one. Yet, yours is beating louder than mine." Ella turned her head towards him in shock, suddenly very conscious of the organ thudding in her chest.

"I've been listening." The Doctor elaborated, not turning to look at her.

Ella's eyes widened and she felt her heart rate increase. It was suddenly very obvious and she had the impression that if she looked down at her chest she would see it banging out against her skin like a cartoon. She knew the Doctor would have noticed the escalating thumping of her treacherous heart even if he didn't react.

"You've been listening to my heart beat?" she asked eventually.

"Yeah, it's actually quite interesting. You can learn a lot about a person by just listening to how their heart beats."

Well, that answered the question as to why he hadn't been talking then, for once he'd been too busy listening. But _what_ could you learn by just listening to someone's heart beat? What did he now know about her?

She was about to ask these questions when he suddenly took her hand and her heart began to pound. Maybe he didn't notice though, she hoped, because he was pointing up at the sky and talking.

"Shooting star," he said quietly and she followed his outstretched hand and located it. "Make a wish."

Earlier he had scoffed that human superstition but maybe he had come round to the idea, or maybe he was just humoring her. Ella didn't really care either way. She followed the stars progress across the sky and then closed her eyes briefly, wishing hard. Her heart rate slowed.

When she opened her eyes, she found him staring at her. She smiled softly and he returned it.

"What did you wish for?"

"Can't tell otherwise it won't come true." Ella's gaze became amused as he pouted at her. "Why don't you listen to my heart beat and it could tell you?" she was mocking him now and his smile grew in acknowledgement.

At the same time though he slipped his hand out of hers and lightly clasped her wrist instead, two of his long cool fingers resting on her pulse point.

There was silence for a few moments as the Doctor appeared to be listening intently and Ella looked at him in fascination.

After a while he finally pronounced an all-knowing "Ah" and released her wrist.

"What?" Ella asked. He merely looked at her enigmatically. "You don't know," she told him, trying to sound convinced. "You don't know, how can you know? You don't know, do you, Doctor?"

He didn't reply, just got to his feet and held out a hand to help her up. She accepted, still looking at him curiously. He raised an eyebrow at her and walked back towards the TARDIS. Ella hesitated for a moment, gave the sky and the landscape one more glance, and hurried after him.

"Come on, Doctor! You don't know! Do you? What did you find out? Please! Tell me, come on!"

He disappeared inside the TARDIS and Ella followed him. Just before the door was shut, Ella's persuasive words could still be heard, demanding to be told, accompanied by the Doctor's wicked laughter.

**A/N:**** Please leave me a review – even if it's just to tell me I'm a sentimental, romantic girl ;) **


	39. Chapter 39

**A/N:**** I appear to be writing these quite quickly – not entirely sure how that happened but oh well! This one's a bit shorter than the others.**

"_Find a guy who calls you beautiful instead of hot, who calls you back when you hang up on him, who will lie under the stars and listen to your heart beat, or will stay awake just to watch you sleep…wait for the boy who kisses your forehead, who wants to show off to the world when you're wearing sweatpants, who holds your hand in front of his friends, who thinks you're just as pretty without make up on. One who is constantly reminding you of how much he cares and how lucky he is to have you…The one who turns to his friends and says, 'That's her'."_

"Will stay awake just to watch you sleep."

It had been a long, tiring day. They had walked for miles and, now that night had well and truly fallen, were being offered a patch of dirt to stretch their tired bodies out on and try to sleep.

Spending the night on the ground and in her clothes was a distressingly regular occurrence for Ella while she was traveling with the Doctor. It always left her feeling bruised and groggy and dirty in the morning, but she was getting used to it.

It was better when there was food though. This was going to be one of the nights when she would fall asleep hungry and wake up hungrier. She was too tired to complain though, and compared to the people they were traveling with and trying to help she had nothing to complain about.

She sat down on the ground and took a moment to look around. Everyone else was getting speedily ready for bed, which consisted of nothing more than lying down and closing their eyes. No showers or brushing teeth or getting in to jammies.

Ella sighed and lay down herself, drawing one arm up to pillow the back of her head and shifting slightly to try and get comfy on the ground. The Doctor sat down beside her, watching the others.

It wasn't long before the sounds of people falling asleep filled the night. The collective breathing of the group grew deeper and quieter, a few snores broke the almost silence. Ella turned on her side and rested her cheek on her hands. She had fallen heavily asleep quickly.

The Doctor's eyes were still wide and alert. He took in the slight movements made by those on watch and the stirring of the sleepers. But mostly he was watching Ella. Keeping an eye on her to make sure she was all right and looking out for any disturbance around their camp.

It was entirely possible that they would be attacked before dawn. The Doctor couldn't risk sleeping and missing anything, anyway that he could protect the others, protect Ella. The stealthy beasts that hunted them may well be able to get past the guards but it was unlikely he wouldn't notice them.

So he stayed awake all night. Watching over the rest of the camp, eyes never drooping, and Ella was allowed to sleep peacefully till sunrise.

**A/N:**** Bit odd but there you go. Was just watching a very young David Tennant in Takin Over The Asylum – he was awesome but there was some distressing hair going on…**

**Please review!**


	40. Chapter 40

**A/N:**** It's short – je suis desole. **

"_Find a guy who calls you beautiful instead of hot, who calls you back when you hang up on him, who will lie under the stars and listen to your heart beat, or will stay awake just to watch you sleep…wait for the boy who kisses your forehead, who wants to show off to the world when you're wearing sweatpants, who holds your hand in front of his friends, who thinks you're just as pretty without make up on. One who is constantly reminding you of how much he cares and how lucky he is to have you…The one who turns to his friends and says, 'That's her'."_

"Wait for the boy who kisses your forehead."

Another sob wracked Ella's body as she sank down the wall to sit on the floor. The cold tiles pressed into her but she welcomed the pressure, needing the knowledge that her senses were still working and she was still there.

Her head bowed and her hair fell forward as she tried to take calming breathes.

"Ella?"

She looked up at the sound of the voice, her face tear streaked and her bottom lip trembling.

The Doctor was walking towards her, followed by a handful of other people who he was ignoring in his concern for her. Ella struggled swiftly to her feet, the blanket she had wrapped around her falling from her shoulders as she stumbled towards him and flung her arms round his neck.

He held her tightly, feeling her damp tears on his shirt. She was trying to explain but he could barely hear her hoarse, halting words.

"There was a man – in the, the hospital. He thought I was someone else – and he held my hand. And then he just – he just – just died – "

His arms closed about her more tightly still, feeling her shaking from head to foot.

"It's okay. I've got you, it's okay." He repeated the reassuring words over and over until she calmed down and was able to move out of his embrace.

The Doctor pulled Ella's blanket more securely about her and she offered him a tremulous smile. He smiled slightly in return and placed a kiss on her forehead.

"Good girl."

Taking her hand he began to walk them down the corridor, finally paying attention to the people who had been clamoring for his notice and formulating a plan in his mind.

**A/N:**** More than a little doom and gloom but I'm feeling the vibe. Please review.**


	41. Chapter 41

**A/N:**** I'm sorry it's been a while – I've been moving and whatnot and it's been pretty time consuming.**

**Also – I know I've written Ella meeting Jack before but that was ages ago and I wanted to do it again and – it's Jack, everyone loves Jack!**

"_Find a guy who calls you beautiful instead of hot, who calls you back when you hang up on him, who will lie under the stars and listen to your heart beat, or will stay awake just to watch you sleep…wait for the boy who kisses your forehead, who wants to show off to the world when you're wearing sweatpants, who holds your hand in front of his friends, who thinks you're just as pretty without make up on. One who is constantly reminding you of how much he cares and how lucky he is to have you…The one who turns to his friends and says, 'That's her'."_

"Who wants to show off to the world when you're wearing sweatpants."

The edge of the kitchen table kept slipping in and out of focus as Ella stared at it. This was probably because she hadn't blinked for some minutes; her eyes were too heavy and tired for blinking.

" – _complete_ loss of dignity – and clothes."

She blinked at that. It was definitely the wrong point to enter the conversation. Ella transferred her gaze from the tabletop to look at the Doctor, who was still talking.

"Apparently it was in the constitution, but no one told me, and I didn't see any signs telling innocent travelers about it." He stared off to one side with an aggrieved expression before looking up at her and smiling suddenly. "Anyway, that's why I don't Sanseth anymore – once was quite enough."

Ella frowned at him. She really had no idea what he was talking about. Well, she knew it was one of his I-got-confused-about-which-planet-I-was-on-and-got-into-trouble sort of stories, but the details were a bit fuzzy.

The Doctor's smile faded and he produced a frown to match hers.

"You weren't listening, were you?"

Ella opened her mouth to protest against his accusation, and then closed it again when she realized she couldn't think of anything to say. He gave an impatient sigh, pushed his chair back from the table and strode out of the room. She got quickly to her feet and hurried after him.

"Doctor," Ella caught hold of his arm and turned him to face her. "I'm sorry. I just sort of spaced out for a bit." He raised an eyebrow, not looking particularly mollified. "I'm knackered today and my brain's all gone to mush." He was finding it harder and harder to look stern now. "Gimme a couple of hours to recoup and then I'll hang on every word you say, promise."

She smiled persuasively up at him and he laughed. He gave her a swift hug before disappearing off in the direction of the control room and some complicated and time consuming repair work.

Ella smiled after his retreating back for a few moments before returning to the kitchen to replenish her mug of coffee and think of what film she wanted to watch.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

She spent the next few hours watching episode after episode of the Gilmore Girls, a rather gormless expression on her face. That morning she had put on her comfiest clothes and she was wrapped in a fleece blanket, curled up happily in an armchair. She would probably have been quite content to stay there all afternoon, but unfortunately she wasn't allowed the opportunity.

The Doctor came into the room quite abruptly, causing Ella to jump in her seat. She sent him a dark look for disturbing her peace, but he complete ignored it.

"So, you ready?"

"Ready for what?" Ella asked, returning her gaze to the television and popping another M&M into her mouth.

"For our next grand adventure!" he declared impressively, before pausing and reconsidering slightly. "Well, not exactly an adventure, more a meeting. Haven't seen him in a while and thought it'd be nice to pop by for a cup of tea. Though, who knows what might happen!"

The Doctor seemed excited by the prospect.

"Who's 'he'?" Ella asked with only mild curiosity.

"This friend of mine, very old friend. Like I said, it's been a while and it's best to check up on him every now and again, make sure he hasn't done anything stupid. Anyway, come on, we've already arrived and he's probably pounding on the doors by now."

He turned on his heel and left the room on those words, leaving Ella staring. After a moment she snapped out of it, switched off the TV, stuffed her feet into her discarded flip-flops and hurried after him.

"Doctor!" she called towards his swiftly retreating form. "This is ridiculous! I told you, I'm tired and I can't go out like this. I'm wearing sweatpants and my hair has gone all weird and, knowing you, I'll get locked up for days without a shower! That's not a good first impression!"

Ella paused for breath in the middle of the console room. It was very hard to have a go at him when he had already left the TARDIS. Annoyed, she pulled open the doors and followed him out.

A few meters away, the Doctor stood hugging a man in a coat with a military cut. They were both laughing and Ella couldn't help smiling at them, before casting a look around.

"Hang on, are we in Cardiff?"

They were standing in the middle of the famous Plass with the Millennium fountain, building thing rising up behind them.

The two men broke apart to look at her. After a moment, the stranger raised an eyebrow at the Doctor, asking for an introduction.

"Yeah, we are," the Doctor confirmed, before gesturing to the man at his side. "Ella, this is Jack," he said simply. "Jack, this is Miss Ella Marlowe. We travel together."

Jack took a few steps forward, holding out his hand. Ella took it.

"Captain Jack Harkness. Pleasure to meet you, ma'am." He tipped her a wink.

Ella smiled, amused by his manner.

"Hello, sailor." She replied, eyes sparkling.

"Actually, it was the RAF." Jack corrected, giving her a slow smile.

Ella heaved a fake sigh. "You flyboys, all the same."

Jack grinned.

"Oh, will you both stop it!" the Doctor exclaimed, glancing away irritably. "I should have known what it would be like with the pair of you."

While he looked about him, Jack winked at Ella again.

"So, you coming in?" Jack invited, walking forward and clapping the Doctor on the shoulder.

"As long as you don't lock me up or try to dissect me. I'd love a cup of tea."

"I know just the man to make you one," Jack turned and held his arm out for Ella to take. "Ma'am?"

She walked forward and slipped her arm into his, taking the Doctor's hand as she went.

Strolling across the Plass in the rare Cardiff sunshine, an unutterably dashing and smooth American on her arm and a lanky alien man attached to her hand, Ella felt happy. Simply and blissfully content. Sweatpants and hair that, in all honesty, needing a bit of TLC, weren't important now.

**A/N:**** I hope you liked it – please send me a review.**

**In other news – I experienced some total Doctor Who geekiness the other day sigh**

**There's a building company called Galleyford Tay and I always read their signs as Gallifrey. It's like the planet doesn't exist anymore but it's ok! They have builders!**

**:( I feel like a sad person.**


	42. Chapter 42

"_Find a guy who calls you beautiful instead of hot, who calls you back when you hang up on him, who will lie under the stars and listen to your heart beat, or will stay awake just to watch you sleep…wait for the boy who kisses your forehead, who wants to show off to the world when you're wearing sweatpants, who holds your hand in front of his friends, who thinks you're just as pretty without make up on. One who is constantly reminding you of how much he cares and how lucky he is to have you…The one who turns to his friends and says, 'That's her'."_

"Who holds your hand in front of his friends."

"Hello, I'm the Doctor and this is Ella Marlowe. We're here for that talk, tour, inspection thing you were saying about."

Not his smoothest introduction but he was grinning widely enough to make up for it. He had suitably flustered the PR girl standing before them in any case. She took a moment to look down unseeingly at her clipboard and gather her thoughts.

"Um, yes, of course, sorry." Taking a breath, she looked back up at the Doctor. "Doctor and Mrs. Marlowe – I beg your pardon. If you'd like to step this way."

She gestured to the door behind her.

"We're not married," the Doctor paused to inform her before stepping through the door, pulling Ella with him by the hand.

Poor Adele Farley's confused gaze lingered on their linked hands, her eyes following them into the building. It took her a moment to remember her other guests and another second after turning towards them to fix her professional smile in place.

Ella walked by the Doctor's side, eyes wide to catch the first glimpse of the room they were about to enter and what awaited them there.

"It's weird being called Mrs. Marlowe – sounds like my Mum."

The Doctor looked down at her only briefly as they entered the conference room before the both turned their attention to the highly suspicious diamond tycoon they were here to see. They took up their positions at the back of the room still holding hands.

**A/N:**** Appallingly short and I don't even know if I like it sigh**

**Just feel like I have to write something and my brain is fried. Maybe, one day, I'll write it properly. For now, sorry.**


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